AN: It might be just me, but it seems this fic is getting a bit more popular . Not having written for so long, naturally when I got all those reviews, I drooled… I'm just a bit fond of getting reviews. You know, just a bit. OK! Got my Aikawa Nanase music, and… I shall write!

PS Sors bout the delay. Had internal issues to work out before I could continue with external work… I'm like that.

PPS Preferred soundtrack for this chappie: Utada & Kiley Dean – By Your Side; Gackt - Miserable (Bloody good song. Bloody hot jap guy. Arguably, though), and KAT-TUN – Hesitate.


CHAPTER 14: IN A REVERIE

Another great roar shook the fragile little world in which Kikyo and Kagome were trapped.

"Careful, little birdie, otherwise you might just end things a bit too early…" murmured Tsubaki, her eyes glassing over as she thought of all the things that could go wrong right about now. None of which had occurred to Kagome and Kikyo, incidentally. She reached to her snake for comfort, her fingertips just lightly touching the grey-green scales.

She smiled.

"My precious, why don't you join the little dears? Stir them up a bit… Have some fun in the meantime… But remember, don't kill them. They mustn't die." She smiled at her familiar, who in turn hissed, and slithered down onto the ground and up into the glowing orb – the one with Kikyo and Kagome's likenesses.

"Just a little more…"

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"AAH!"

Kagome had just very nearly dodged one of Yasei's great lumbering, thrashing limbs. Reaching aside to part a bit of hair from her face, she turned sideways to Kikyo, and remarked;

"He's not very coordinated, is he?"

Kikyo made a wry expression, "No, he's not."

"A bit of an overgrown chicken."

Though the description was apt, Kikyo didn't smile. She didn't like making a habit of it, either.

The truth was neither of them knew what was wrong with Yasei. Here he was, a great weapon of mass Kikyo/Kag destruction, and… it was as if whatever fuse had previously made him work properly, now had blown apart, and his limbs were not attached to his brain anymore.

As Kikyo and Kagome warily got to their feet again, Yasei's new mission was utter and complete annihilation of a nearby shrub, in true stuttering-chicken fashion.

"What now?"

"I… don't know." How many times had circumstances forced Kikyo to think, act or say this statement? It was not like her at all.

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"Damn!"

Tsubaki ground her teeth together in frustration. Of all the things to go wrong… She had forgotten she could only control one vassal at a time within her enchantment. And since she no longer controlled Yasei, it was impossible to extract him.

She now had to rely on her remaining servant… or no, perhaps it would not even take that long. Perhaps Kikyo and Kagome's powers would merge before anything went horribly wrong, and Tsubaki could simply turn them into one single puppet she could control.

Yes. That would be great. IF it worked out.

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What is wrong with me?

The sunlight here is fake. I cannot see. I cannot act. I… am not me. Release me, please…

Hold on… my eyes can register a form, a shape… Is it the witch? It smells like her. It FEELS like her… no, it is not, it is her familiar…

Yasei must fight. Yasei must protect his master from harm! Then, perhaps, we will go back to the forest of light and darkness where we wandered, and I shall once again be me.

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The greatest battle was raging inside Kikyo and Kagome's plastic little world.

Yasei had stumbled upon a disgusting, monstrous, grey-green snake, with poison dripping from its fangs, and the over-large sparrow had somehow gained control of his limbs and was now engaged in one of the most handicapped great battles of all time.

Handicapped, because neither the snake nor the sparrow seemed to be in control of their full senses. The two giants just kept going at each other, slowly, with most of their attacks missing, and uncoordinated feathers, scales, coils and claws lashing out all over the place. Kagome and Kikyo could only watch in half-fear and half amusement; with a small clock inside Kikyo ticking ever nearer to its destination, and for some reason, more so than the battle between Yasei and the snake, this scared her. Infinitely. Something big was happening and for once Kikyo didn't know what it was, nor how to stop it.

"What should we do?" Kagome asked. The obvious question had been going round her head for a while, and Kikyo had her thinking expression on, which indicated to Kagome that Kikyo probably had SOME answers.

"Ah… Kagome…" Kikyo turned to Kagome's eager expression. What a child Kagome was. She doesn't know what is at stake, even. Yet her determination forces her through anything, and her character and will to live surpasses that of anyone Kikyo had previously met. Here was a rough jewel, no – a hidden jewel, and her heart could probably create a Sacred Jewel rivalling even that of Midoriko's, out of purity and love. Never to be tainted. She could grant any wish through the goodness of her heart.

Why had she ever hated her? Kikyo felt drowsy, and collapsed to her knees, all the while thoughts once again swirling round. Ah yes, Inuyasha. That poor deluded half dog-demon that thought he owed something to her. Yet he didn't realise when he met her, that Kikyo was not as sure of herself as he thought she was. No, if anything she was even more confused. Shunned by most of society and banned from normal life, Kikyo was more broken inside than anything Inuyasha had ever been. Their demoralised selves merged into one because they were like two broken halves wanting to be a whole. It might have even worked.

She shouldn't have fallen in love. A life of love and tenderness was not Kikyo's destiny. What misery straying from one's path brings…

Was this Destiny's second chance to her? This young, new version of the cold priestess, was she the safety net rather than the fatal push? When Kikyo compared Kagome to herself, it seemed Kagome was more Kikyo-like than even Kikyo. Everything Kikyo had aspired to be, had wanted to become, was also the reality of Kagome. Was Kagome the dream, and Kikyo the reality, or was it the reverse? Was Kikyo the nightmare, and Kagome the soft vision of reality?

A cold, yet welcome thought hit Kikyo's mind. PERHAPS – simply PERHAPS – KIKYO was the imitation? No wonder Inuyasha had felt attachment to her. The attachment was mere pity! Pity for a doll that had been chucked away and left behind.

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"KIKYO!!!!" Kagome screamed, her throat raw, for the umpteenth time.

This wasn't happening; just when she had gotten used to the dead broad, everything had to go wrong – AGAIN! Kikyo had firstly fainted, and now she was disappearing! Literally! Kagome's mind panicked. Everything was wrong again, and she was already so alone, she didn't want to be alone again. What would she have done without Kikyo all this time? It wasn't fair!

While Kagome's mind screamed injustices and scalding tears rolled their leisurely way down her cheeks, the deafening shrieks of Yasei and the spiteful hisses of the snake reverberated on and on in the little world as, finally, the fabric of the dimension began to tear apart and the world unravelled…

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"Yes! YES! Just a bit more!!!" Tsubaki had lost all pretensions of the spell. The world containing the consciousnesses of Kikyo and Kagome came apart at the edges, and the bubble floating above Kikyo and Kagome burst. Yasei was once again a tiny sparrow, and the snake was its normal size, crawling out of the spot in the air where the bubbles had been. The tiny sparrow flitted around the snake and tried its best to poke its eyes it with his beak.

To Tsubaki, though, none of this mattered, because she already had the nearly-merged globes containing Kikyo's and Kagome's powers in her hand.


AN: Well, that's done! Once again, sorry about the wait. I had to get my act together in more than one sense. THANKYOU to all of you who are STILL THERE, and I have not missed a single one of your reviews! In fact, often I just read them over and go, "Awwwww…" Well I shall not blab because, well, I think I blab too much at the end of each chapter. SEE YA!!!!! Story's nearly done! ish.