Chapter Ten- The Mystery of the Cave and Naraku's Attack

Kagome found that no matter how deep she traveled, there was always a mysterious light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The stone of the cave was midnight black, and the strange light appeared to be blue-green, shining off the glossy walls. Nicky followed obediently, but his tail was tucked between his legs and he whined every so often. Kagome finally picked him up to stop the whining. Suddenly the floor beneath her feet collapsed when she reached what appeared to be a dead end.

"Ahhhh!!!!" Kagome screeched and expected to fall to her death, but instead she was sliding at an unimaginable speed through a small tunnel that curved and twisted, the plummet almost straight down at some points.

Finally her descent slowed as the tunnel straightened out and became level. All while this had been happening Nicky was tucked safely in her arms, but at the consequence of all his slobber blowing back in her face. Disgusting. Kagome wiped the drool from her cheeks and she finally came to a complete halt at the end of the tunnel. The cavern she saw before her made her gasp in awe. It was beautiful!!

The cavern was huge and dome shaped, and the ceiling impossibly high. Everything was the same glossy black stone, but there seemed to be an origin to the blue-green light here. There was a pool of crystal clear water in the centre of the cavern, and it appeared to be glowing. Kagome walked hesitantly over to it, curiosity urging her forward. About five feet away from the pool Kagome was startled when she realized that the smooth black stone beneath her feet was ground away into a fine, soft sand.

At the edge of the water Kagome slipped off her shoes and socks, delighted by the feel of the sand. Sitting down she dipped her feet into the cool fresh water, and she watched as the ripples sent across the water sparkled almost as if there were diamonds riding the mini-waves. Nicky dipped his muzzle into the water and eagerly lapped it up. It was then that Kagome noticed the carvings on the walls. It appeared to be an ancient battle…..wait, there were large wasp things….and a man with what looked like a tornado coming from his palm…..the Feudal Era!?

Kagome leapt to her feet and raced over, searching for…..there! A man brandishing a large sword with doggy ears atop his head. Inuyasha. Kagome then wondered if she would be there on the ancient wall.

"Ah ha!" She spotted a woman in a different picture with a small fox boy on her shoulder.

The woman had a bow drawn at some enemy, and there were lines surrounding the tip of the arrow, and Kagome assumed it was the light of her miko energy. Kagome scanned the wall for a while, picking out the stone depictions of Sango, Miroku, Kaede, Koga and his pack, Sesshomaru with Rin and Jaken, Kikyo, and Naraku. Then it hit her. What about the end of the depiction? Did it show how the war with Naraku ended? Did it…..she dared to wonder…..did it show what happened to Inuyasha? Did it show what happened after she had left?

Kagome followed her journey through the Feudal Era for about five more minutes before she came to a part she didn't remember being around for. Inuyasha was collapsed by the well, almost as if he was in pain, and the rest of the depiction was scraped away. Worry weighed down her heart at the sight of Inuyasha by the well, and she moved on only to find him standing by a house with a woman and child. 'He couldn't have…..no, I can't think like that!' Kagome shook her head and saw in the next picture the same woman and child, but the picture branched off into three more, showing the pair changing into demons.

Yet another picture depicted them, but Naraku was floating above their heads and shooting what appeared to be a miasma at Kaede's village, and the villagers were dying from it. The last picture was only half complete, but from what was there Kagome could see that only Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, and Shippo were still alive, facing the demons and Naraku. 'Where's the rest of the battle? Is Naraku defeated? Does Inuyasha go to hell with Kikyo? What about Miroku and Sango, do they ever get married? I have to know!!' Kagome pressed her hand against the cool black stone, and all of a sudden the carvings beneath her fingers began to glow pink with her miko energy.

The glow traveled down the carved map of history, and soon the entire thing was lit up, right down to the very first depiction when she arrived in the Feudal Era. From each picture a thin strand of energy traveled up the wall, meeting at the very peek of the cavern. A pink spotlight then extended down to the pool of water, and when it touched the surface there was such a bright flash of light that Kagome had to shield her eyes. When she was able to look again she stared in puzzlement at first, and then shock. Where the pool had once been there was a circular stone well made from the same glossy black stone as the rest of the cavern.

There were vines carved into the side of it, and the lip of the well was carved in the shape of a dragon. The head of the dragon came up off the well and was pointed directly at her, and when Kagome went to investigate she noticed that the mouth was shaped in such a way that a large pearl would fit snugly inside…..perhaps the Shikon jewel. A thought struck her as she peered down into the depths of the well, and she accepted the idea with an open mind.

Maybe……just maybe…. 'It could take me back to the Feudal Era! I mean, even if it doesn't the worst thing that could happen would be breaking a few bones if the well is dry…..and I would have no way to get out….' Kagome pondered this for a moment, but decided to jump in anyway. Life was pretty useless without Inuyasha, and if this well was a possible door to the past she was going, risks or not!! With a final hope filled prayer Kagome picked up Nicky and jumped into the well. 'Wow…this well is really deep….hey, I think I see the bottom….uh, nothing's happening!! Crap!'

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Inuyasha had just returned to Kaede's village with 'the brat and his mother', and he was in such a foul mood that even Miroku refrained from any sort of conversation. And why was our ever-lovable hanyou in mindset to kill? Well, let's just recap the journey from the dead village to the present.

"Mama!! I don't wanna get on his back!!"

"Come on sweetie! He wants to take us to a new home! Somewhere better for us."

The struggle continued on for another ten minutes, and after the little boy had shredded every last piece of Inuyasha's patience and insulted his half-blood, they were finally on their way to Kaede's village. But the boy was screaming bloody murder and bawling his eyes out while the mother failed to shush him. And it went on, so finally Inuyasha growled so viciously at the boy that it scared him right out of his voice. No more crying, no more screaming, just silence. Petrified silence.

"Mommy, the half man is mean."

"Shush honey!" The woman then turned to Inuyasha, "I am so sorry about his behavior; Kota is usually such a sweet boy!"

Inuyasha watched Kaede whisk them away with a very annoyed scowl on his face. For once he considered helping someone to try and be more like Kagome (because he missed the girl), and what did he get? Insulted, screamed at by a brat, and a scolding from Kaede for making him cry. Stupid kid. See if he would ever help someone again. How was it that Kagome was praised for her good deeds, when he was screeched at and reprimanded by an old lady? 'Well you idiot, you're a half demon. Hated by both races and lower than dirt.'

His brow knitted together and he stood up on the tree branch he had been lounging in. The same tree he had sat in while eating with Kagome when he first met her. A sharp wrench at his gut forced him to abandon the tree and the memory. Damn that girl! He didn't have fee run of the world anymore. The places he used to go, they were all surrounded by memories with her. She made everything….hurt. It wasn't nearly this bad when Kikyo had died. And she had died, damn it!! Kagome was alive, she was well, and she had left him for a better place in the future!

It made him angry to know that she was probably having a wonderful time without him and the Feudal Era, and he was missing her horribly, much more than he missed Kikyo as one of the living. Women….they could make your world or break it, at whim and with one single action. Like dying. Or abandoning you. Inuyasha snarled and decided he was going back to the well, even if it was a threat to his health and sanity. He was going to curse that thing into oblivion!!

Racing through the forest he arrived at the Bone Eaters Well in no time at all. But his fury was instantly quelled at the thought of Kagome poking her head out in any second. He missed her….and deep down inside, though he refused to admit it to even himself, he felt like…..a lost puppy. Inuyasha collapsed at the edge of the well and rolled over to stare up into the cloudy sky. He was a wreck. His girl was gone, his world was sinking into the clutches of evil without the Shikon no Tama to save it, and he felt like shit.

Memory after memory flooded his mind, and one seemed to linger longer than the rest. Inuyasha had told Kagome to never come back to the Feudal Era, and they were attacked by demons. And just when it was all over Kagome had returned against his command, hugging him for dear life fearing that he had died while she was gone. That was one of the few precious moments he had with the kind-hearted girl, and he cherished it. But there was one memory that hurt much more than the others and it made his heart ache with lost passion and broken dreams.

When Kagome saved him from himself. That wretched woman and her mirror had brought him so close to becoming a full demon, so close to loosing his rational mind and control over blood lust. But in that one moment, that one, cloud nine moment Kagome had saved him. She kissed him, and saved him from certain disaster. It reminded him of a song Kagome had been listening to when he went over to the future to get her the last time. She said it was called….Lips of an Angel. Yeah, that was definitely how Inuyasha defined Kagome when they had kissed.

His chest ached horribly when he remembered that event, and he gripped his torso with one arm to try and ease the hurt. It was all he could do to keep himself from falling apart again. He inhaled the humid air in deep breathes, trying to ignore the pain he suffered. He couldn't leave this place though, he had to stay and wait it out. Kagome had said once that it was better to face your hurt and come to terms with it than to try and run away. That always made things worse. If he could avoid having this pain again by dealing with it now, he would do it.

He knew he would never forget her, or stop missing her completely, but he just wanted to be able to think about their good times without feeling so horrible inside now that she was gone. The warm breeze lulled him into contentment, and after a few drowsy moments he slipped into a peaceful slumber. But it was not without dream.

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Inuyasha's dream

He climbed over the side of the well and stepped onto a wooden floor. He was in the future, at the Higurashi shrine. He fisted his hands and left the building, his eyes falling on the Goshinboku tree and then the Higurashi home. Well, their previous home. Inuyasha walked slowly to the house, his heart heavy. He pushed the door open and stepped inside, greeted by stacks of boxes and luggage bags.

More importantly, the scent of people, the fresh scent of Higurashi. Inuyasha stared wide-eyed at Souta as he entered the dining room, playing a video game. He didn't even glance at the hanyou standing in the doorway. Said hanyou raced over to him and tried to shake his shoulder to get his attention, but his hand passed right through the boy. He then heard Mrs. Higurashi call out from somewhere else in the house.

"Kagome, hurry up! It's time to leave!" Inuyasha pondered this. Time to leave?

He ran up the steps to find Kagome sitting at her windowsill, sobbing. He was at her side in an instant, pained by the sight of the upset miko. He again tried to make contact, to hug her, but he just passed right through her small form. Tears rolled down her cheeks freely, and with each drop on the carpet it wrenched at Inuyasha's heart. Suddenly he turned to see Mrs. Higurashi standing in the doorway, her eyes soft and slightly sad at the sight of her daughter. She walked over to Kagome and rubbed her back, trying to console her.

"Mum….I'm going to miss them so much!" the poor miko sobbed, her voice cracked with sorrow.

"It'll be okay Kagome, you will get used to our new home soon, okay? Then everything will be alright, and maybe once we're settled in you can come back and visit your friends. Does that sound good?" Kagome nodded, but she still looked broken up about leaving.

Mrs. Higurashi led her daughter down the stairs, trailed by the confused hanyou. Was this what happened? Was this why Kagome had gone away? Did….did she really miss him and the others? The well…she said she couldn't get through…that she didn't want to go through….was she…was she so upset about telling him she was going away that the well saved her the heartache and blocked her out? Was that it? Inuyasha watched as Kagome climbed into the car and they drove away.

He stood in the door, thinking. She wanted to say goodbye…but she couldn't because she was so afraid…so upset. It all made sense to him now! But the dream wasn't over yet. He was suddenly standing at the lip of another well, a deep pit of a well that seemed to go on forever into the earth. It was carved stone, and he was standing in a huge cavern of lit in a strange blue-green light. The walls were covered in a war mural, but his feet wouldn't move.

The well in front of his pulled his gaze back to it, and by some strange force it pulled him over the edge. He tried to grip onto something to stop his decent, but it was no use. The walls around him were slick and smooth, and he dropped like a stone.

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Inuyasha thrashed against the side of the Bone Eaters Well and woke up, his brow damp in cold sweat. He glanced around, calming at the familiar sight of the Feudal Era. When his breath evened and his heart stopped racing his mind returned to the dream. He saw Kagome, he saw her leave. He knew it was against what she wanted. For some reason, that thought eased away all his heartache, all the doubt and anger he had. She still cared, and now he was able to think about her without pain. He could leave the well now.

The sun was rising again when he finally returned to the village, and the sky was clear and blue. It was almost as if the weather was looking up with his mood now. For a few fleeting moments he was at peace with himself. And when he arrived at the village, all of his peace was gone. There was that child and his mother, standing alone in the road. The mother no longer had a smile of sweet maternal warmth, and the boy….well, he always looked like a brat to Inuyasha. But the two were standing facing him, sadistic grins spread across their faces.

"Hello, half-demon. We're here to kill you under our masters' orders. But first, where is the jewel? Give it to ussss!" The mother figure hissed, her human form peeling away and in its place a huge python demon with scaly lizard arms and razor sharp claws.

The boy said nothing, he only nodded and his human skin peeled away as well. In his place was another, much larger hooded cobra demon with the same sort of arms and hooked razor claws. They hissed and swayed back and forth in time with each other. Apparently Naraku had sent a pair of assassin demons, and they had fought together before. No matter, just a couple more heads to viciously decapitate. He launched himself at the duo and swiftly turned to the cobra (A/N: I just now realized that Kota rhymes with Cobra...really, unintentional! But it is fitting...) and drew the Tetsaiga, preparing to strike. But the snakes were much quicker than they appeared, and in an instant Inuyasha was smashed to the ground by a well placed strike of the python's tail.

He landed heavily on his feet, cracking and the ground and thrusting himself backwards. These were pretty formidable demons. He wondered how many humans Naraku had fed them to persuade them to kill him. It was probably a very hefty price, and that sickened him to his core. He then remembered finding them in that destroyed village, and it made him wonder.

"So, were you the bastards that killed off that entire village?" He growled, sword at the ready.

"Yesssss. Those humans were very good, but I must ssssay I've had better. Naraku will have to pick a better village next time he decidesss to feed one to his bessssst assassinssss. He'll have to pay more if he wantssss us to ssstay under his command." The python swayed back and forth, her tongue flickering in and out of her jaws.

They may have been snake demons, but they still had a full set of flesh ripping teeth, with severely pronounced canines like all snakes had. Their jaws hung slack, and because of this Inuyasha could see the blood tainted saliva that stained their teeth a dull pink. It made him shudder inwardly, realizing that they didn't just swallow their food whole like most snakes.

"Well, Naraku is going to be pretty pissed off when I send your heads back to him in a well wrapped package! So prepare to die!" Once again he attacked head on, this time going for the python.

"You'll have to do better than that, pitiful half-breed!" The cobra finally spoke, his voice forced and gravelly.

With one quick movement he brought his clawed hand down upon Inuyasha, but the hanyou dodged and turned back, slashing the cobra's wrist in hopes of cutting it off. But he was shocked when the blade hissed metallically against thick scales, sending down a shower of sparks. 'Damn it...their scales are too thick to penetrate with just a normal attack!' He jumped up into a nearby tree and readied the Tetsaiga.

"Wind Scar!" He jumped from the tree and slashed at them in midair, sending out a powerful stroke of yellow energy.

Again it didn't even phase the demons, and he suddenly realized how much damage they were doing. When they had emerged from their human bodies they destroyed some of the houses around them, and their lashing tails and constant movement was bringing even more destruction to the village. Luckily the villagers were out in the fields at this time of day, so no one was around to get hurt. It was then that he saw Miroku, Sango, and Shippo riding Kirara high in the sky. He saw the distress on Miroku's face, and he knew the monk was feeling quite helpless. Indeed, they were in the middle of the village, so if he used the wind tunnel it would probably do a lot of damage to the whole area.

Sango used her boomerang (A/N: craaap! I have no idea how to spell the name of it, help!) but to no avail. It was swatted away by a single claw, and was wedged into the side of a house. Inuyasha worked his way back to the forest, knowing that if he didn't get there soon the whole village would be destroyed. Kirara had landed and the rest of the gang joined him after Sango retrieved her boomerang. The villagers had begun to return with pitchforks and other farming tools to fend off the snake demons. Kaede appeared out of nowhere, her face creased in determination. She met Inuyasha's gaze, and just as they turned back to fight the demons the huge cobra lifted one of the villagers and chomped off his upper half. Blood went everywhere, and to their horror the cobra tossed the rest of the poor man to the python and she caught it in her jaws, crunching down and then swallowing it.

There was a sudden rumble of thunder, and a huge mass of purple-gray clouds oozed over the sky like oil. Naraku appeared out of the center of the mass, laughing cynically. He spread out his hands and released a miasma, and the villagers screamed in terror as it consumed their neighbors. They fled like sheep, trying in vain to escape the certain doom that awaited them at Naraku's hands.

Something had to be done soon, or all of the village and its inhabitants would be dead, and the world would fall into the clutches of evil. Jewel or not, if Naraku defeated them there would be no hope left for the world.

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Kagome had been falling for what seemed like eternity. After a while the strangeness of this new well pulled her into a dream-like state, and she saw the visions of the Feudal Era, when Inuyasha was fighting the demons, Naraku arriving, killing them all, and she cried from the bottom of her heart when she saw her beloved hanyou grasped in the jaws of the cobra and inflicted with its poison, left to die slowly.

She saw what happened after everyone was dead, she saw the world fall into darkness. Naraku took over everything, he killed all the humans, he enslaved demons, and he eventually found Sesshomaru and a grown up Rin who had become mates. He killed Rin right in front of the dog demon who was unable to do anything, she saw him try to reach her and bring her back, and she saw Naraku kill him from behind just as he reached his love.

Kagome saw the many failed rebellions and demons killed in the peak of defiance, she saw the plants and tender animals die, the land became waste and the water ran poison. Everything mutated into a horrid nightmare, and she finally saw the end of all things. Lucifer came up out of hell and took Naraku as his son, ruling the world on a thousand years of darkness. Everything was destroyed in hellfire after that, and she realized that her time would never be if Naraku won the fight against her friends.

She pulled out of the dream and took in a deep breath as the glossy black walls around her began to glow dark blue. They got brighter and brighter, and soon she had to close her eyes against the blinding white light. When she opened her eyes again she found herself in the bottom of another well. The Bone Eaters Well. Realization dawned on her. She was back; she was going to see Inuyasha and the others again. She was home.

A loud crash echoed down the well and she was brought back to her senses. She knew there was no time to rejoice now. Inuyasha and the village and all her friends were in trouble, and she had to hurry if there was going to be any hope of saving them. She pulled herself over the edge of the well and raced through the forest, praying that she wouldn't be too late. Gasping for breath she skid to a halt at the peak of a hill overlooking Kaede's village.

She saw the demons below and Naraku spreading his miasma. Realizing that in her journey through the strange well she had regained her bow and arrows, she knocked an arrow and aimed at the python demon. Her pink miko energy flared around the tip as she released it, and it buried itself under the edge of a scale at the base of the python's neck.

"Kaaaaaaasssssss!!" The huge snake went down in a fire of pink energy, writhing in pain.

Inuyasha snapped his attention away from the great cobra that he was locked in battle with and focused on the hill. Standing there was Kagome, bow at her side and the wind pulling at her long tresses. She had finally returned, and his body filled with renewed vigor. His Kagome was home.

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YES!!! I have finally updated!! Aren't you all excited?!?! I am extremely pleased with this chapter, and it's all thanks to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack I'm listening to. It is very inspiring, and for some reason it makes me write faster. Well anywho, sorry for leaving you off at such an intense moment, but I had to do it! It is the perfect way to draw you back in…..and the plot bunnies made me. Well? Comments, questions, advice? I shall take them all with gladness! And once I have this posted I will start with the next chappie so I don't get sidetracked. Yay for me! (...gah, darned thing won't save the indents, sorry about that)

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this chappie, and the more reviews I get the sooner the next chapter will be posted! I just realized that this will all be over in the next couple of chapters or so…….kinda makes me sad……but then again, severely happy that I will finally be DONE!!!! Doesn't that excite you?!! Oh yeah, and I just realized that I had anonymous reviews blocked, so if you have been reading this as an anonymous person and you couldn't review before, now you can. And if you read all of this (points to entire author note thing) then put 'cool beans' somewhere in your review! Well, until next chappie, valete!

Mistoffelees Shadow