Sango's body shook, her hand flying back to the wound on her face. Fighting past the shock, fighting past the pain, she tried to focus on Naoe. Through sheer force of will she kept her mind on the battle at hand, she looked at Naoe and then back at Ronuku.

When she saw the demons approaching through the trees her body grew cold.

"He," Sango panted, pain straining her words, "He's calling the demons..." Despair flooded her senses as she looked at her husband once more, a hoard of beasts slowly flooding the clearing around them. Ronuku meant to kill them, there was no way to deny it.

Her husband was gone.

She didn't realize how bad she was trembling until she felt Naoe's steady arm on her shoulder.

"Here, you're going to need both hands," he said quickly, ripping a length of cloth from his sleeve and tying it over the wound in her left eye. Her skull screamed at his touch; gritting her teeth she remembered her training and kept from screaming.

"If I didn't know you better," the samurai said as he finished, his voice retaining the calm of a battle hardened warrior, "I would ask you to consider going back to the villagers."

Sango said nothing. They both knew that wasn't an option.

"But if you are resigned to remaining here, then I have one last plan." Naoe nodded towards Ronuku, "His stance makes it evident, even boosted with his power of the bond of the sacred siblings calling in these demons is straining him. Once we make our move, they will attack and block us from reaching Ronuku. One of us…will need to create an opening. When that happens, the other musn't hesitate, they will have to continue forward and end this. If one of us can reach your Hiraikotsu, then we might have a chance."

This will be the end of us, Sango thought, though she looked to Naoe and nodded. Suicide mission or not, they didn't have a choice anymore. Angry snarls guttered across the clearing, the demons quickly surrounding them. They were running out of time, there would be no other plans.

"Take this," the taijiya handed Naoe the sword at her hip, refusing to let him go weaponless. She activated a switch in her sleeve, and the short blade hidden within her armor sprung out. Hiraikotsu lay on the ground yards away where she dropped it; everything in her being focused on the bone weapon, their only chance of success, however slim that hope was. With a sudden cry the two of them surged forward, and the hissing demons rushed to meet their attack.

The monsters struck like a tidal wave. Sango had been trained to fight with only a short weapon, but exhaustion rendered her movements slow and clumsy. Blind on her left side, she only saw half of the oncoming attacks. For every demon that she fended off with her blade, another rushed at her side, every swing was met with claws and fangs.

Panting, side stepping, Sango back-pedaled away from the demons, being pushed further away from her giant boomerang.

"Naoe," She shouted, "I can't reach it! There's got to be another wa-"

The air was suddenly pushed from her lungs as a demon struck her side. Sango gasped and wheezed, skidding several feet in the grass slick with her own blood. Adrenaline fueled her limbs as she fought to regain her balance, but a sudden cough erupted as her lungs struggled for air. Drops of scarlet dribbled from her lips.

She felt her body growing weaker by the second.

There wasn't much time.

She glanced at Ronuku, his body completely still as his power fueled the dome and controlled the demons.

"Naoe!" She coughed, "Naoe, I can't reach Hiraikotsu! You…you have to hold off the demons!"

She turned towards her husband, her bloodstained steel growing heavy in her hands.

Ronuku, she thought, her heart growing colder as another cough send blood dripping down her scarlet-drenched face, Ronuku, once you're gone I won't be far behind…

She dashed forward, Naoe running alongside her. The flood of demons charged in front of them, Sango ducked to avoid them as the samurai swung the sword and sliced them in two. He stepped ahead and carved a path for the taijiya, leaping over corpses, rushing across the slick grass, running, attacking, running…

As they closed in on Ronuku, the possessed man stood as still as a statue, his darkened eyes watching the scene with absolutely no emotion.

As Sango rolled under the outstretched claws of a demonic bird swooping down at her, she heard the sudden pained cry of Naoe behind her. Within seconds his cry crescendoed into shrieks of pain, and she turned to see the samurai caught in the caws of several demons, more and more beasts flooding over him, their faces drenched in human blood as they tore at his flesh.

"S-Sango!" He shouted, struggling against the hoard "You must not hesitate! Stop Ronuku!" Sango wanted to scream, memories of Kohaku and her father threatened to flood her mind, but she turned and clung to the only thing left:

Reach Ronuku.

End this.

Sango raced forward, arms bleeding as she held up her blade, the gap between her and Ronuku closing rapidly. The taijiya closed her mind to everything around her, her sorrow, fear, pain, everything in her heart evaporated. Nothing existed but the blade in her hand and the target before her.

Naoe's cries, the screams of the demons chasing her, they all faded. Each beat of her heart drew her closer, every muscle in her body poised for this one moment. The blade glinted on her arm, her eyes focused on his throat. The gray flesh was unprotected, her target too focused on controlling the demons and maintaining the dome. One deep slash was all she needed, one quick cut and it would all be over.

Time slowed, Sango leapt forward, arm raised over her head as she thrust the blade forward. Her own shout was deaf on her ears, the glint of metal raced forward hungrily, inches away as it prepared to tear into his throat.

The sky exploded.

A wave of sound and light knocked Sango away, her weapon only grazing Ronuku's throat as she fell to the ground.

"WAKE UP!" A voice like thunder echoed in its wake, "Ronuku listen to me, you have to wake up!"

Sango coughed and turned towards the sky, recognition flooded her mind and her eyes widened in surprise.

K-kagome?!

A faint line began to form along Ronuku's neck. His blackened blood dotted the surface of the cut as he jerked his head up towards the sky with an alarmed expression. The bushi's face registered full emotion for the first time. He was alert, questioning the voice he heard up above.

"You…" His voice rumbled, darkened eyes flickering with recognition.

"Please, you have to fight this, you can't let him control you!" The voice shouted, "Please wake up!"

The cord of black light, the one that connected Ronuku to Kohana and fed their power into the dome above, began to shudder as a faint thread of white suddenly formed within it.

"Don't listen to her," another voice answered, the soft menacing voice that had spoken to Ronuku before, "She's nothing but another of Naraku's tricks, there is nothing here but death."

Behind her, Sango's heart nearly stopped as she heard Naoe suddenly shriek once more, his voice dying in a choked gasp as the demons surged over him. Bathed in his blood, they tore into the weary samurai and ended his life.

Naoe….No! Her mind shuddered in horror as she watched the hoard of demons rip the samurai apart. Her blood ran cold. Her stomach dropped.

Another death. Everyone was dying.

Just like her village.

Sango winced against the pain, fighting desperately against her despair and fear, clinging to the one hope she had left. She grunted, gripping her weapon desperately as her aching muscles fought to push herself off of the ground, and glanced towards the sky.

"Kagome!" The taijiya shouted desperately, "Kagome is that you?! Please, you have to stop this! Save Ronuku, make it stop!"

She'd heard her friend's voice, but was Kagome really there? Or had she been hallucinating? Was her mind playing tricks on her as she fought in vain against death?

The snarl of demons reached her ears, Sango whipped her head around in time to see the furious beasts rushing towards her. Gasping against her pain and tears, she pushed herself to her knees, knife in hand as she prepared to give what little strength she had left fighting off the hoard.

The wind suddenly picked up, a ferocious gale that whipped the trees about and bowled the demons over, pushing them back away from their quarry.

"Sango," Kagome's voice shouted, "Sango I'm here! I'm trying to get through to Ronuku but I…the jewel is fighting me, I can't…"

"Ronuku," A malicious voice echoed, "Ronuku don't listen to them, Naraku is merely trying to trick you…trying to show you what you already lost. They're all dead, you know that…you know it was all your fault."

The wind whipping her hair around her face, strands striking and stinging her good eye, Sango glanced at her husband and stared in shock. The dark strand that connected him to the dome spun violently, the darkness lashing out at the white strand that had appeared within it. Two forces at war over Ronuku's consciousness.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, Sango pushed herself up, face to face with Ronuku. The darkness clouding his eyes flickered, and for a brief moment his wife saw a faint flash of the familiar hazel beneath.

"Wh-what's happening…" Hoarse and grave, his voice shook from misuse. The bushi stumbled backwards, dropping his broken weapon as he gripped his head in pain. Doubling over, the grey-skinned man trembled and shook, "What's going on?!"

"Ronuku…" Sango sobbed, her heart thudding as she heard his voice, "Ronuku, I'm here. I'm right here, can you hear me?"

"Listen to her," Kagome urged from above, "Please Ronuku, focus on Sango! She's there to help you!"

"Sango…" Ronuku's voice dropped, darkness flaring around him, "I couldn't save her…I should've been there…" He hissed in anger, tears suddenly falling from his eyes, "Naraku killed her and I did nothing!"

"No, that's not true," Sango took a step towards him, "Whatever you heard, it was a lie!"

"Was it?" An angry voice thundered down, "Ronuku look at her, a corpse is all that stands before you!"

He looked up. Shadows clouded his vision, but his face contorted in pain when he saw her. Sango had no doubt that she looked like the dead, besides the wave of scarlet that coated the left side of her face, her armor was torn; hot blood seeped from her wounds and drenched every inch of her body. Even so, she gritted her teeth and stepped towards him.

"See? This is all that remains of your precious wife," the voice continued, "A broken illusion sent from Naraku to torment yo-"

"No!" Sango interrupted angrily, "Enough of your lies, I'm sick of hearing you! Ronuku, listen to me, I am not dead! Your children are not dead, and our friends..." she knew that the broken bodies of Naoe and Miroku lay behind her, that they had already lost so much, but she continued, "Our friends need you! We can still stop Naraku, we can still win but you have to fight this! Stop listening to him! Don't let him control you!"

Ronuku stared at her as she spoke. With each word the darkness in his eyes lightened; captivated by her voice the bushi's trembling calmed. The thread of white within the power surrounding him grew stronger.

"S-sango," he uttered, "You're…alive?"

"Yes, I'm r-"

"Sango watch out!"

The taijya had no time to react to Kagome's warning. A sudden wave of energy crashed into her, and once more her face hit the ground. Crying out in pain, she glanced up and a wave of horror struck her as the saw the figure that stood over her.

"My my," the low voice from above now sounded right in front of her, "you are quite the persistent bitch, aren't you?" An opaque man, his body seeming to be made entirely of violet smoke, stood over her. His very essence radiated hate, and with a flick of his wrist Sango felt her body float upwards until she was suspended eye-level with what would have been his face if there was anything there.

"Naraku should've thrown you back in that grave when he had the chance," the voice laughed, dripping with malicious glee, "You'd think that chasing your poor brother across the country might've tired you out, but you didn't stop there did you? You had to fight, had to abandoned your children, had to climb this mountain, had to save your husband at the cost of everything you know and love. Tell me, how many times must I destroy your family before you. STAY. DOWN?"

A sudden sharp pain tore through her innards, and Sango screamed. The pain was too much, her body and mind too exhausted to fight back. Ever since the jewel had entered her life it had relentlessly torn everything apart over and over. She'd fought so long, and it was all for nothing. Here at last, the malevolent spirit was going to destroy her personally.

"You've been in a thorn in my side taijiya, but no more," the jewel's shadowy hand reached up and grabbed her throat, tightening his grip, closing off her hair as excruciating torment ripped through her, "Your husband is mine, everything you knew is gone and your time is done. Goodbye."

Darkness flooded her vision.

She went limp in his grasp, letting the pain claim her and pull her beneath.

Before she went under she heard a muffled shout from across a great distance. The shout grew, the thunderous crescendo racing across the distance until a blast of heat bowled into her, grabbing the last vestiges of her drowning consciousness and dragging it back up.

Sango felt herself crash to the ground once more. Coughing, desperately filling her lungs with precious air, she glanced up and saw that the jewel's arm that had been gripping her was missing. Behind him, a blinding white star flared brightly against the darkness.

Ronuku stared at the shadowed figure, his eyes narrowed in hate and rage as white light flooded from his body.

"What do you think you're doing?" The jewel turned and hissed at Ronuku, mist swirling around him as his arm faded back into view, "Ronuku, this woman is an illusion you know that."

"Real…fake…alive…dead," The samurai's voice shook with fury as he stared down his captor, "It doesn't matter to me…I don't care what form she's in, nobody hurts my wife! SO STEP AWAY FROM HER! NOW!"

"You're giving me orders?" The jewel hissed, "This 'rebellion' of yours won't last Ronuku, as long as Kohana is still lending me her power you won't be able to escape, you'll soon return to m-"

Ronuku didn't let him finish. With a demonic shout the samurai charged forward at blinding speed, his glowing fist striking at the faceless shadow. The jewel vanished the moment he struck and reappeared behind him.

"You're fighting for a memory Ronuku, Sango is gone," the jewel insisted, "There's nothing more you can do."

"No," Kagome echoed from across the darkened sky, "He's wrong and you know it! Don't let him back in!"

Their voices landed on deaf ears. Lost in a blind-white fury Ronuku turned around and charged at the Jewel once more. Like mist itself, the opaque figure vanished each time the samurai was about to strike. The two of them danced around the bloodied clearing, Ronuku's white light illuminating the scarlet floor beneath them. The demons had long since fled, it was only the Ronuku and the Jewel left to battle, locked in a power struggle for the samurai's very soul.

With the two of them too engrossed in combat, Sango trembled, summoning up every ounce of strength she had left in order to pull herself forward. Crawling, dragging her injured body, she inched forward searching for something, anything that could help.

I can't let him take Ronuku! I have to help!

Her desperate mind clung to those thoughts, refusing to stop until the very end. Her bloodied knuckle brushed up against something hard, and the taijiya glanced at the weapon on the ground before her.

Ronuku continued to howl angrily, becoming more and more furious each time his blow missed. The white light pulsated around him, but the cord of energy that connected him to the dome still swirled with darkness. Leaping over the corpse of a fallen demon, Ronuku's fist once more collided with nothing. Screaming, he turned to find his opponent when something suddenly grabbed his wrist.

"Cease this foolishness at once," The Jewel ordered. Ronuku howled and tried to pull away, but the Jewel's magic was too strong within the dome. Where he touched the samurai, dark light once again bled into the white.

"Ronuku, remember that you agreed to serve me. You and Kohana both, you gave yourselves willingly."

Ronuku's struggles grew weaker. Try as he might he could not wrench himself free.

"There's no use fighting now, return to me where you belong. There is nothing for you here."

"No!" Sango shouted, her voice strained as blood trickled from her lips. Using the very last of her energy, the taijiya pulled herself up and stood with her giant boomerang ready, "We need him, his children need him, I need him and he knows that! I won't let you take him from us! Hiraikotsu!"

The bone weapon soared through the air and cut through the Jewel's arm, disrupting his grip on Ronuku. As the weapon passed, the samurai's eyes widened.

"Sango…I won't let you hurt Sango!" He shouted, suddenly focusing on the Hiraikotsu. The weapon arced in the air, and Ronuku aimed for it. A bolt of white lightning shot from his fingertips and enveloped the boomerang. The weapon glowed white as it was superheated with Ronuku's energy; suddenly blessed with speed it flew back spinning through the Jewel and cutting the figure in two.

The faceless man shrieked, but the moment the white light passed through him he dissolved instantly. Hiraikotsu hit the ground and skidded in a pool of blood, all the chaos in the clearing suddenly dissolved to calm.

The white light faded from Ronuku, all light faded. Grey skinned, wounded, and sickly he stumbled for a moment before his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He crashed to the ground, and lay still.

Panicked and back to the ground herself, Sango tried to crawl to him. She had already given more than she had though, her wounds caught up with her and her muscles refused to move. Staring desperately at her husband's fallen figure, she could've sworn she saw his chest rise and fall, almost as though he were resting, and this was the only thing that brought her ease.

Ronuku…Ronuku you're free…you're free now…

With her goal complete, Sango let the darkness claim her.

She never heard the voice shouting her name, or saw the figure racing towards her from the sky.