Inuyasha POV:
I stumbled back over the threshold as the woman of my nightmares flowed toward me on billowing red skirts that reach the floor, her top covered by a tight black turtle-neck; her scent threatens to overwhelm me as it mingles with death and I strive to remain sane. I'm standing outside of my apartment now and she was in the door way. Guilt comes like an icy rain, and almost immediately after comes the fires of rage and betrayal. But above all was a sense of stunned confusion.
"Are… Are you… Really her?" I ask.
"Inuyasha…" she says my name like no one else in the world can, but I don't trust her. I was right not to. "Why did you betray me Inuyasha?"
"Me?" I choked out. "You shot me!"
"Don't lie," she hisses, "because I was the one who was torn." I'm still confused.
"But they told me you were dead and gone!" A cruel smile plays on her lips while her eyes remain black pools, travesties of Kagome's warmth. How cruel is fate that the only two women I had ever loved could be twins. Or maybe it's my poor judgment. Right now, I don't give a damn.
"Oh, I was dead, but I was never truly gone." She says softly as she raises her hand to shoulder length, wrist loose and dangling. I know what's coming. No place to hide; No time to run. Her wrist flick up at me, her fingers sending arcing volts of lightning into my body. I scream with the agony. I can't see, can't breathe. All I can hear are my own cries echoing over in my head, and the omnipresent pain is all my nerves detect. The pain goes on and on, and it feels like it's been there forever. All that ever was, is, or will be. And still it goes on, though I can no longer hear my own screams.
Sango POV:
It was nearing 10:30, but I was in no mood to sleep. Kirara paced my living room looking for a spot to lie down while I cleaned and polished my Hirikotsu. I'm amazed I was allowed to keep it in my apartment. That may have something to do with the fact that I threatened my landlord though. I rub a soft cloth lovingly over its smooth and familiar surface, knowing every dip in the bone, every pockmark, and knowing which fight or practice session it came from. I suddenly hear someone yelling, but disregard it, because people around here fought all the time. It was none of my business. But then the screaming starts.
The cries are desperate, horrible, and animal-like with pain. What's worse is that I know who the voice belongs to now. Inuyasha's cries continue and Kirara starts bristling. Whatever is happening, it's not good. I run to the door, slipping through with Kirara at my side. We run down the first flight of stairs the agonized yells cut off abruptly. Panic lends me speed and I fly down the second flight of stairs, Kirara skittering around my ankles as we round the corner together.
I see a woman in red skirts standing over Miroku's friend with her back to me. I pray that Inuyasha isn't dead, but he's laying ominously still, eyes half open with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He lies on his side, facing me. His silver hair was bloodstained, and I'm scared. Whatever this woman could do to bring down Inuyasha-who never gave up without a fight-was obviously painful and so incapacitating that the victim couldn't lash out against their attacker. Kirara transformed into a snarling beast as the woman turned slightly to face us. Her crimson skirt was flecked with a darker ruby, blood shining wetly on the cloth. I knew the face before she completed the turn.
"K-Kagome?" The cold disdain in her eyes instantly convinces me that this is not Kagome, no matter how much they may look alike.
"I am not she. My name is Kikyo." The woman says icily.
"B-but Inuyasha killed you! 50 years ago!" Kikyo nodded.
"He did. I suggest you leave so that I can kill him and be done with my vengeance." She says. I assume a ready stance and prepare to use my Hirikotsu. She laughs slightly until she notices Kirara.
"Oh, let me rid you of that nuisance, that demon cat. Humans and demons should never be together." So saying she slammed Kirara into a pillar, and nearly over the railing that kept her from falling three floors onto unforgiving concrete.
"Kirara!" I yelled as she twitched, the same pink lightning that I had seen sparking on Inuyasha traveling over her fur in waves. I raised my eyes angrily to the Kagome look-alike and throw my weapon with all my might. Kikyo laughs and erects a barrier. What she didn't account for was the sheer weight of the weapon. It forced her back, her bare feet leaving streaks of blood as they ground over the rough pavement. She hissed as my Hirikotsu returned to me.
"I won't forget that you stole my chance at vengeance, slayer!" She whispers to the breeze as she slowly vanishes into a cloud of soul collectors. Hearing Kirara regain her feet behind me, I dropped my Hirikotsu and ran to Inuyasha's side, kneeling. My knee dipped into a small puddle of blood as I lifted his head in my arms, feeling for a pulse. It was there, but very faint. The only sound in the hall way was the steady drip-drip of blood. I could see a scared looking half demon girl with short black hair and slitted eyes, like a cat, with a flicking black cat's tail beneath her nightgown. (A/N: Hehheh, look you guys! Me! P.S. the eyes are like Inuyasha's, not Voldemort's kind of slitted) Several other people arrived, drawn by the fight, but I didn't pay attention to them until the cat-girl shoved a phone into my hand. I swiftly dialed 911, telling them to hurry up. I thought for an instant before dialing Kagome's cell number after I had called Miroku.
"Hang in there Inuyasha. For Kagome." I whispered to him. At her name his eyelids flickered, the first movement from him that I'd seen.
Kagome POV:
I was almost asleep when my cell phone rang. I groaned and rolled out of my bed, checking the caller I.D., which said 'restricted'. I answered, just so that I could yell at the person on the other end for waking me up at 11:00. When I put the phone to my ear I could hear sirens in the background, someone crying, and a yelling voice that sounded like Miroku.
"H-hello?" I asked, surprised. I heard Sango's voice out of the other end.
"Miroku, leave the paramedics alone, they're…What? Oh, don't even start that with me!… Oh, hello? Kagome? SHUT UP MIROKU!" I had to hold the phone away from my ear at that point.
"Um, Sango?"
"Oh, yeah, hi Kagome. Listen, I just called an ambulance for Inuyasha and-" I cut her off.
"WHAT?" I yelled. Sango sighed on the other end.
"Look, just go to the hospital on L street and meet in the parking lot A.S.A.P, okay?"
"Uh, yeah, yeah, I'll borrow my mom's car, be there soon." I said quickly while tugging on a jacket over my pajamas. I left a note next to where my mom hangs up her keys, just in case I wasn't back by morning, and bolted through the door.
Inuyasha POV:
I was back in that town square, the one with the fountain. Smoke clogged my senses and fire alarms rang shrilly in my ears. I brushed rubble off one shoulder, triggering a spasm of agony from the bullet wound in it, but I ignored the pain. Nothing could compare to the pain of her betrayal. Kikyo. That traitorous wench. I began to laugh with the irony of it all. I laughed and laughed, but as if drawn by my bitter remembrance of her, she was there.
"Inuyasha!" she yelled her voice cutting through the ashes and screams with a clarity born of close bond. I would have heard her a mile away. A gleam drew my attention as I turned to her. The hand gun was fired and the bullet buried itself in my chest. I had been standing in front of a white building, but as the bullet pierced all the way through the left side of my chest the wall was painted in red. I noticed the scent of Kikyo's blood over my own. A huge gash was along her shoulder and neck. I wondered for a brief moment how that had gotten there before my attention turned to the burning pain that spread throughout my body, beginning at the wound over my heart. I gasped and fell to my knees, one hand hovering over the bleeding hole in my body.
"K-Kikyo… Why… I thought…you…" I couldn't form a coherent string of words, but my thoughts were as clear as daylight, faster than the speed of sound. My body suddenly ceased to obey and I blacked out, but the pain didn't leave me.
I suddenly heard a man's voice echoing through the blackness.
"He's waking up…"
Stop… I whispered in my head. The pain was becoming unbearable. Make it stop… Another voice pierced my consciousness, deeper and older.
"Restrain him." I felt cold metal cuffs close over my wrists, waist, and ankles. Make it…
"Stop!" I yelled as the pain hit me full force upon regaining consciousness. I was held in place, unable to writhe in my agony. I cried out, and though I tried to stop myself I began to feel the fire-blood in my veins, the fire-blood Kikyo's magic had held captive within me while she tortured me. Doctor bustled around me in a white room that smelled strongly of medicine and antiseptic as I thrashed. My eyes bled scarlet and the groaning of bending metal reached my ears. The fire-blood dulled the immediate pain and as a young man neared my head I snapped at him, my fangs burying themselves in his soft flesh and I felt his bones begin to crack. He screamed and I felt satisfaction that he should feel some portion of my hurt. I released him with a snarl, trying to free myself.
If I stayed here they would run tests on me, keep me here because I was different. I didn't trust doctors. At all. Ever. I strained against the metal bonds, breaking the one over my right wrist. I tried to sit up, and slashed at the air with my free hand. People were yelling to sedate me, but no one could get close enough to do it. I fought them as they tried different methods to get me to calm down. Nothing they did worked. I was panicked and in pain, fighting out of fear.
Kagome POV:
Sango had explained everything when I had arrived, and now the three of us sat in cold plastic chairs in a white hall outside of Inuyasha's room. The colorless door in front of us had a small square window in the top, directly above the numbers. Miroku dozed in his seat, and Sango's sleeping form rested on his shoulder. I was the only one who had stayed awake for the past three hours. I suddenly saw people running around in the room before me, heard a cry.
"Stop!" It was Inuyasha. He sounded pissed and scared and hurt and panicked. I stood up quickly as a sobbing young man stumbled through the door clutching his hand as it bled profusely from teeth marks. The people behind the door were trying to sedate him, or at least, that's what I gathered. Inuyasha's scream reached me through the door and I pushed in. No one stopped me in the confusion as I made my way to the table where he was pulling desperately at the iron cuff enclosing his left wrist. His eyes were scarlet and he had purple stripes across both cheeks, and this scared me.
"Inuyasha…" I said softly, and he whipped around faster than my eyes could follow.
"Don't come near me!" he barked, and the doctors stopped their hectic activity to watch me.
"Inuyasha… It's me… Kagome!"
"I know, and that's why you need to leave! I don't want to hurt you!" he said in a low voice, but instead of obeying his wish I dropped to my knees so that our faces would be level.
"Inuyasha, you need to let them help you. Please don't hurt them anymore. They just want to make you well again." I finished my little speech by brushing my lips against his in a soft kiss. "Don't make this harder to watch than it already is." My eyes brimmed with tears as his eyes stopped glowing. He looked tired.
"All right Kagome. For you." He murmured, sagging against the metal table. He fell asleep later and the doctors moved his condition from 'critical' to 'dangerous'. In regular person-speak that qualifies as 'really really bad' to just 'bad'. I stayed the night at the hospital, swearing to myself that I would be here when he woke up. Now that I knew he wasn't going to die, I was greatly relieved. In the morning Miroku and Sango left, and I stayed. My mom called and showed up with a change of clothes. And she did so for the next six days. How long was this going to take?