A Little Too Late

~ Chapter Nine ~

Heroic Dreams , Spiteful Schemes

& Everything In Between

By Inuyashas Youkai

Sleeping peacefully, after a very much unwanted confrontation with the one who had left her so pained , much broken in the past ,thus had left her exhausted, drained, and then soon thereafter Kagome began to dream. It started off with something rather happy , then it quickly went downhill, and it was then that she realized to what Kagome thought was a dream, was really that the miko was actually dreaming of real memories , painful ones in fact.

It was the day when all of this started when Inuyasha had told her how he really felt about her, and even though she knew that their goodbye' would eventually come, but this wasn't the way it was ever thought it would ever come to pass. Soon following stood as the last time she existed in that time in the past , but before it had something occurred that couldn't have been expected at any given time.

When Naraku had her in his clutches with both his minions standing by to help, alongside Kikyo, a sharp pain pierced inside her chest for a brief moment , a slight pinch following after , and then nothing , as a burst of powerful energy erupted from her . Screams soared , and blood permeated the scene , as Kagome felt herself fall deeper into darkness , then waking up within the time stream leading her back to the present , not knowing how she had got there.

On the other side of the well , Kagome lifted herself from the well's depths , walking forwards in a daze , as someone spoke , but at the time she couldn't even tell who it was that had spoken ..

"Now your present state shows that you are nothing more than my pathetic copy , and soon when you finally die I will have what you have taken from me , without anyone knowing that you're gone, or soon not remembering that you were ever here in the first place !"

Anger saturated her being without knowing as to why, but she felt large amounts of power Kagome never knew she had coming out in bursts , and exploding in places around her , to attack the one she could not see. Walking forward another then joined the first to taunt her , and then all she could see was red , as furious flames had somehow erupted across the once lively surroundings. Someone then tried to call out to her , but with all what was going on with the one's presently speaking , Kagome couldn't understand what the other lone person was saying , and at the time it didn't seem to matter cause something was indeed wrong , she felt it inside her .

"Kukukukukukuku..." A emotionless cackle rang into her ears causing the shiver to run up and down her spine..

Then another but creepy taunting with threatening undertones started to rise up to join the previous two..

"You may have not had a use to the hanyou that left you all alone for Kikyo, but your purpose hasn't yet ended, for it is we that want you .. Kanna remove her heart , and then with that putrid thing out of the way I should be able to better break her , without remorse.."

"It is so , the heart is no longer , but a heroic dream within the mirror .."Kanna informed.

"Kikyo , here take this with your arrow and shoot towards that of her heart .."Naraku demanded..

When it was all said , and done , Kagome found herself , again at the bottom of what used to be the covered well , now a broken down heap of wood , and debris. Standing , uncovering herself from the ruble, Kagome stood with shocked , bulging eyes to find the whole shrine was in ruins, engulfed in flames.

Waking up suddenly , to find herself still within the room she was kept prior until she had fell asleep , Kagome sighed , and took breaths to slowly steady her racing heartbeat. Shortly following both Inuyasha , and Sess's presence could be felt coming towards hers with the often too friendly spirit signature of Miroku coming close behind, along with her brother Souta.

"Shit !" Kagome let slip

Once the doors were thrown open by her mate , sending the Tetsuseiga flying the four quickly came to stand within the middle of the room , when Inuyasha had came to kneel besides her on the bed.

"Kagome , you okay ? I felt it , through you , you were scared , and in pain .."Inuyasha said concerned , holding her once again so that to everyone else she couldn't be seen.

"I am fine Inuyasha , just a bad dream of something that I would rather forget , that's all .."

"Tell me.."

"No..I cannot , but if you look hard enough , with the way you felt what you had , I can show you.."

"Why? How?"

"Inuyasha , I believe the reason that Kagome-sama cannot speak of this is because she is still under Naraku's control , and with the little that she has let on Kagome-sama is paying for it by the bastard himself ,for the physical hold he has on his heart much like Kagura in the feudal era. I think that is why Kagome-sama has had such need for relief from the pain. I-"

"Lil brother I think that what the monk is trying to say that you need to find the answers within yourself with the connections with your mate , telling you to come just now, that she needed you without her knowledge, but I believe if I am correct that I can guess without having to do that this time . What would be something that Naraku wouldn't want us to know, enough to cause her pain if she disobeyed .."

This time though, Kagome's brother Souta , whom had been quietly listening up till now , had voiced shakily.

"She's dreaming about when she disappeared from your time , coming back for the last time, and what had lead up to thereafter.."

"Excuse me , Souta .. But how do you know this .."Miroku asked ..

"Yea , I mean did this happen before , did she tell you ..?"Inuyasha gasped .

"No . My sister never told me , but she often spoke in her sleep , and well since I knew with whatever Kagome saw scared her , causing her pain , I asked while she was out , high on what relief I could offer her. Of course whatever had caused it still tried , but because of what I gave her she didn't feel it , and she slept in a daze. It isn't the first time this has happened , nor do I muse will be the last. Kagome was most of the time out of it because of this , and struggled with the need to fight against whatever it was that was causing it .."

"Then tell me what happened !" Inuyasha demanded .

Once Souta told the events , describing the very things reliving the nightmares that his sister, Kagome was privy to seeing repeatedly , since those events had occurred, they found some very disturbing revelations that originally weren't even considered.

First off , Kikyo had gained most of the soul that was taken from Kagome , because in this life it seemed that she was brought again to this one only bearing apart of the soul that her , and Kagome shared . Kagome's heart was removed by that of Kanna's mirror , and mused that it is where , it still remained and it was Kikyo's arrow in the past that had made a entry for the shard to be placed where her heart was taken .

Furthermore things just got a whole lot worse than they started to believe because now , not only was Naraku at the moment in control of the situation, the incarnations of their enemy were standing amongst them , some posing as his mate's step children carrying no recollection of anything prior yet, with exception of one , and that one was currently holding the reigns to Naraku's demands...

The Creepy Baby ..

TBC...