AUTHOR'S CORNER:

Begins sweatdropping and scooting away Ehehehe... heh... heh... please don't kill me! Things are about to get much more complicated for our favorite couple. I couldn't just let them get away with things so easily... bad muse. This will be a very long story and I'm not ready to give it up just yet!

YamiYoukai - you leave the most awesome reviews! X3 Yes, you have a point with the cainine behavior. I don't know if I'll have him speak to her in his true form, but it's an intersting idea to consider.

Gomen! Short chapter, but I felt it was so emotionally charged that I really couldn't add more. Nice long chapter next time, I promise!

Chapter 18

Kagome sat up with a despairing gasp. Sweat soaked her night shirt and matted her hair to her cheeks and neck. Covering her face with her hands she tried not to shake. Kami, what a dream! Tears ran down her face unheeded, so much pain! So much pain and anguish! A residual feeling of exhaustion and hopelessness washed over her and her chest constricted tightly.

Sesshomaru had come out of his state of half sleep, the demon never completely succumbed to sleep, though it was possible for him to do so. He only required rest once a week, depending on the level of activity during that week and since his week had been fairly relaxed he simply settled for a half asleep and half awake state.

The taiyoukai pulled to full wakefulness when he felt the miko's aura flash from down the hallway filled with despair, distress and pain. Rising swiftly to his feet, he made his way to her room and looked in on the tossing girl. Under the thin fabric of her shirt he saw the normally softly glowing shikon pulse wildly between a dark purple color and a vibrant pink. Part of the hopelessness and despair he'd felt from Kagome had actually come from the shikon itself and was projecting into her dreams.

Suddenly she sat bolt upright and trembled, her eyes shooting open in panic. He wasn't sure what was going on, but something had distressed the miko greatly and he figured the shikon had something to do with it.

"It was a dream," his velvety voice gave her shivers in the dark, but she shook her head and looked up at golden eyes that seemed to hold their own glow and stood out eerily in the almost black room.

"No, no it wasn't," she shook her head again, tremors in her voice betraying the power of her dream, closing her eyes against the visions. What she had seen was a cry for help. Her hand clutched the completed shikon hanging around her neck. Sesshomaru looked at the small hand holding on so desperately to the jewel and through her hand he could see the stone fluxing more wildly than before, the dark violet and light pink glows battling for dominance and shining even through the flesh of her hand, illuminating it eerily from within her palm. The demon didn't even have to extend his senses to feel the uncontrollably pulsing auras emitted from the shikon. Farther away and more faded, less uncontrolled he felt the magical aura around the well pulsing as well.

"She's losing," her voice brought his attention back to the shivering miko, "Midoriko," she said despairingly. "She's losing the battle against the youkai. I have to make a wish on the shikon no tama before something happens…"

"Miko Kagome," she looked up, "the power of the well is fluxing," Kagome's eyes went wide.

"What does that mean?" Sesshomaru shook his head.

"I do not know. Perhaps it is merely reacting to the shikon. Do you know anything about it to make it act that way?" Kagome shook her head in negative.

"No, I remember it fluxing once or twice before when the shikon became almost completely tainted, maybe that's what's doing it?" she looked up at him hopefully. The demon was staring up into space and he nodded thoughtfully.

"It would appear the time for you to make a wish has come," he took her by the hand and pulled her to her feet. "We should head to the well before you make it, just to make sure nothing happens and that I can still return." Kagome nodded mutely and followed him out the door, noticing that Tōkijin and Tenseiga were by his side as usual.

They exited the house silently and headed to the well house. Kagome began to shake in anticipation and because her damp skin felt cold in the chill night air. Here in the well house, even she could feel the well pulsing, though it didn't feel as though it were unstable. Maybe it was simply responding to the power of the jewel?

Sesshomaru turned to face the girl as she removed the shikon from around her neck and slid it off the silver chain.

"Do you know what you will wish for?" he asked curiously. Kagome nodded with a shuddering sigh.

"There's only one thing I can think of that's completely selfless…" he looked at her curiously, and resisted the urge to smile. Of course the girl would want to make a wish that would benefit other people, but with her big heart, she would realize that such a wish might also benefit herself, and was therefore still selfish. Clever girl.

Closing her eyes, she held the shikon against her chest in a silent prayer to the Kami's before opening her palms and raising the pulsing shikon.

"I wish on the power of the shikon that all those within would be free of their gem prison and would go to whatever fate awaits them in the afterlife and that all would be at peace." Sesshomaru's eyes widened involuntarily, surprised at her wish. The shikon no tama grew increasingly bright until it was impossible to see anything in the well house at all. Suddenly the light was gone and so was the shikon. Kagome felt her sides and reached out with her power to feel for any sign of it. The shikon was really gone!

Turning to Sesshomaru with a pleased grin on her features, she made as if to hug him, but seeing him, she stopped up short. His eyes were wide and he was looking at her as if trying to memorize her face. Just then she felt the power of the well as it fluxed madly and began to fade away. At the same moment she realized why Sesshomaru had a hint of panic in his eyes. He was fading too.

The demon began to become translucent and lose physical weight. Kagome shook her head in denial and tried to grab onto his arm.

"No! No! NO NO NO! Sesshomaru, don't go yet!" she cried frantically, but her hand went right through his own clawed hand as if he were merely a ghost. Her little hands reached out to where his chest was fading away, wanting to touch him one last time. His golden eyes watched her with mixed feelings, already she and his surroundings were fading away to be replaced by the forest around his side of the well.

"Fear not miko," his voice was echo like in quality and sounded far away, "we WILL meet again," Kagome sobbed and reached for him again. No! She wasn't ready to part ways yet! She'd just begun to get to know the demon beneath the ice and now he was being taken from her too! With a final pulse from the well he completely disappeared and the well fell silent.

"NO! No! Sesshomaru, don't leave me!" she screamed to the empty well house. "Please!" collapsing to her knees, she sobbed until her chest hurt and her eyes were red.

Five hundred years in the past a demon stood by a well staring at the stars he had missed so much and breathing the fresh air that cleansed his abused lungs. He had heard the echoes of her last cries through time as he had fully solidified in the past before the sound died away leaving him once again in the time in which he was born. A small look of sadness and loss crossed his face before it was gone as if never existing and was replaced by a familiar mask of ice. Glancing to his side, golden eyes took in the dark well in the forest that was named for his half brother.

The portal was dark and silent, absolutely no feeling of magic around it anymore, no more tendrils of power. After a few moments, the demon put one foot in front of the other and headed west, knowing the looks he was going to get when arriving home so inappropriately dressed since he still had the t-shirt and workout pants on, but he knew all he had to do was look at any who dared to defy him.

A wave of loss rose up in his chest as his thoughts rested on his week away with the little miko, but no outward signs showed on his face at all, even his eyes were completely iced over. No one would ever know the demon lord had known any weakness. As far as he was concerned, it had never happened and he would return to his normal stoic and icy rule.

Though as he traveled, he realized it wasn't that simple. He couldn't simply deny that it had happened. The feeling of her lips, of her soft body, the way she smiled at him when he'd let his humor show, the way the fire leapt up in her eyes during sword practice. No, those would haunt him for all of his days.

Kagome scrubbed her eyes dry and stood, casting one last glace at the dark well. She could feel nothing from it and knew it would be futile and probably hazardous to try and jump down it now. Fresh tears began to well up in her eyes as the realization set in that she would never see the feudal era again. The well was closed and with it all hope of fixing her friend's graves or seeing a certain stoic demon lord again.

With a heavy sigh and an equally heavy heart, she turned to leave the well house and head back into her home. Stopping to stare up at the stars she let despair wash over her briefly. He probably was happy to be back and to be rid of the annoying miko who caused him so much trouble.

Shaking her head at herself with a gentle smile, she knew she was wrong. Just the way he had kissed her only a few hours ago had destroyed all ideas that he felt nothing for her. What exactly he'd felt for her, she didn't think she'd ever know. But he'd felt something, of that she was sure.

This only made her poor heart ache more. She'd lost so much and just when she was beginning to make something new she could hold onto that was taken from her too.

With another heart wrenching sigh, she entered her home and returned to the life of a normal high schooler.