A short while later, Kagome and Koga ascended a never ending staircase.

'Is this stairwell unnecessarily long or is something wrong?' Tom inquired to himself but he heard Kagome's thoughts.

'Can we not reach the top because of me?' The girl worried.

'What is going on, Kagome?'

'Kikyo sick with shouki," the schoolgirl explained. "She said I am only one who can save her but I need a special bow. But she said I must have no doubts to get it.'

'So there should be no problem.'

The girl quieted as she continued to run. The wolf demon had disappeared some time without warning, transported away by Mount Azusa's barrier.

After finally reaching the top, a faceless entity adopted Kikyo's appearance, startling Kagome. It showed the young miko to the sacred bow and handed the weapon to her. Kagome bowed with thanks towards the spirit before running out. A glimpse of red and white led the girl to call out to Inuyasha and follow the form through the trees. And right off a cliff. Her fingers tangled into vines last minute and she let out a shout.

"Inuyasha!" she yelled for help.

Instead of Inuyasha, Tom's face at the edge of the cliff surprised her.

"Kagome, give me the bow and then I can pull you up!"

She nodded but was alarmed to find that the longbow she carried through the forest was too heavy to lift.

"I can't!"

"You cannot lift it because you are filled with doubt." Kagome's eyes flew to Kikyo's floating form. "You are still trapped in the half demon Naraku's webs." Mount Azusa's spirit had read her heart.

"What doubts?!" She asked the spirit. "Of course I want to save Kikyo! She's Inuyasha's love and she's my teacher!"

"There is no doubt that you do not want her to die. But you do not think you can save her. You do not believe her words."

She felt her grip slip a little and yelled out.

"Kagome! Careful! You'll fall! Let go of the bow or you'll die!" Tom's voice urged.

Kagome's eyes widened. "What are you saying?!"

"You're not strong enough to pull yourself up. You're not strong enough to use the bow to beat Naraku. Or to save Kikyo." The boy pulled back his outreached hand. "You're not strong enough to save me." His concerned demeanor dropped and he scathingly remarked, "So you mind as well drop the bow and save yourself. That's the only thing you MAYBE can do. I won't tell." He crossed his arms. "Not like I'm ever going to get out of that book at the rate you're going."

"Tom…" Her hold on the bow slackened. "What is going on? I thought we were making progress...You said I was getting better…," she whispered.

"Ha. You don't really believe that, do you? Obviously, since you can't even retrieve a bow. Naraku showed you how Kikyo, with all her skills and knowledge, died because of him. Likely to die twice. You're never going to surpass Kikyo. You're never going to save any of your friends." Tom sneered at her from above.

"KAGOME!"

"What?" Kagome's eyes flew to a twin of Tom's that leaned over the cliff, paying no mind to the one who had been beating her down.

"How?" Mount Azusa's spirit questioned, "How did you past my barrier?"

"Kagome! Do not listen to their words. Whatever they are saying is obviously upsetting you and is not helping!" The real Tom Riddle demanded, "Get a hold of yourself!"

"I…..do not know what that means…," Kagome realized too late that she had understood the first Tom perfectly. Impossibly perfectly.

Tom Riddle eyed the imposter who seemed not to care about him. After a few seconds of inaction from the fake Tom, the Slytherin heir dismissed him and turned his attention back towards the girl.

"Why have you not tried to climb back up?"

Kagome mentally shook herself. "I...can't lift the bow because I'm not strong enough to use it. It has rejected me because I don't have the power to save anyone…"

"Well, that is a bunch of horse shit! I'm here aren't I? Nobody else has helped me as you have. Kikyo's training is showing results. You're even purer than the monk. Believe me. I know. If you weren't, I'd abandon you and go suck energy from him."

Despite her precarious position, a fire lit in Kagome's eyes. "Are you saying you're using me for my power?" she asked icily.

"Yeah. Because you are powerful." Tom smirked and reached his hand towards her. "Now do hurry up and get your arse up here!"

The minor god of Mount Azusa attempted to test Kagome's self-worth once more.

Kagome grasped the bow tightly. "Would you just shut up! Tom-san is right. I'm strong and I'm learning. I WILL take this bow with me. And Naraku will be defeated. It might not be today. Or tomorrow. Or next week. Or even this year! But I'll continue to train. I will help people because that's what I do." She lifted the bow over her head and looked at Tom. "My friends believe in me. So I will believe also."

Fake Tom and Kikyo disappeared and the faceless spirit nodded in satisfaction at Kagome's conviction.

"You are free to climb up now. You are now free of Naraku's spider webs," the faceless spirit stated. "Use the bow and save the priestess."

"Tom-san!" she reached for his hand.

He shook his head, "I'm afraid my time is up." He started to fade into the fog. "Do not fret. Do you hear that?"

"Kagome!" Inuyasha's voice echoed from below.

Kagome nodded to the wizard boy before her surroundings turned white and the cliff disappeared

A/n: wow. I apologize to all the unfortunate souls that had to read my last chapter when it was all messed up with repeating lines. I tried to replace the chapter twice and it was not cooperating. Truly shameful...probably why I posted thus chapter so quickly. Trying to redeem myself :p So this is pretty different from the real Mount Azusa episode. I wanted Kagome to be less hung up on Inuyasha. Hope it made sense.