In unconsciousness, Kagome fumbled in a dark landscape without order or reason. Only a single urge to keep pressing forward filled her mind.

Kagome you have to wake up!

The darkness cloyed about her weighing her down with its soft seductive touch. It offered her the peace of oblivion and the end to all her troubles. Hadn't she done enough already? Her entire life she had recklessly faced death, risking her neck numerous times to aid others. Did she not deserve rest? Had she not earned it?

Kagome it's not over and you're in grave danger!

The darkness brushed aside such concerns. Life was just an endless path of agony. Did she really want to choose a return to the pain, the fear, the insecurities, and the failings of the world? Wouldn't it simply be easier to give into the darkness and slumber peacefully in its black embrace?

Kagome! If you don't wake up, Wei is going rape you and murder everyone!

Like a light switch flicking on in her mind, the darkness stifling her mind evaporated as Kagome's eyes opened and consciousness returned to her. Her skin immediately registered the heat, as it and a thread of fear shot through her when she saw Wei's deranged face.


Aware of his captive's awakening, Wei turned his face to regard her. In the darkness of the night with the firelight dancing wildly in his eyes, Wei seemed to personify everything wrong with humanity and the world. A being whose sole purpose was mass murder and defilement and who had absolutely no sense of remorse.

"Recovered have you?" Wei sneered and brought Kagome face to face with him with less than an inch separating their faces. "That is fortunate. I would hate to rape an unconscious woman. Too much like necrophilia."

"Wei," Kagome hissed while take hold of Wei's arm. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!"

Kagome's eyes lit with power and convection waves formed around her as power that was the stuff of legends welled up within her and exploded like a birthing star. It gathered strength and ramped up in intensity until Wei's arm and shoulder vaporized in a fuscia blaze that sent him sprawling across the blasted earth that was once her backyard.

Wei regained himself almost immediately, however.

Rising up, he stared at the bloody mess that was once a side of his torso and the rags of the button-up shirt that clung to him. The blood gushing out from his torso paused in mid air and formed into an amorphous globular shape that resolved itself and took form.

A moment later, and Wei's arm was restored.

His shirt, however, was still in ruins and he ripped irritably at the rest of it to remove it entirely.

"Still have more fight left in you?" Wei asked, sizing up Kagome. In the dark embrace of night, with her power flooding out of her in waves of brilliance, he was forced to admit that even if she was Japanese, she was still impressive. Wei had not yet had the opportunity to really witness her spiritual powers in action, but was quite willing and even eager to face her on her own level. "Good. Nothing would make what I am going to do to you sweeter."

"Wei, listen, it's over." Kagome knew it was futile but some part of her demanded that she try to get past this creature's limitless rage. "World War II and the Sino-Japanese wars have been over for decades. You don't need to keep fighting."

Wei's eyes narrowed and he looked at her as though she were the stupidest person to ever walk the face of the planet. When he did speak his words came in a furious rush and contained such vitriol in them that Kagome winced.

"YOU THINK IT'S OVER? YOU THINK WE WOULD EVER FORGIVE YOU? AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO US? YOU STUPID BITCH! NOTHING SHORT OF YOUR PEOPLE'S EXTERMINATION CAN EVER GIVE ATONEMENT!"

Kagome could sense something like thousands of souls screaming furiously as Wei drew on his otherworldly power and, as he continued, holy power tainted with dark rage like Kikyou's poured out from him giving him an aura of malignant purple.

"IT'S THANKS TO US THAT YOU HAVE YOUR CIVILIZATION! WE GAVE YOU CULTURE, RELIGION AND MEDICINE! WITHOUT US YOU WOULD STILL BE TRYING TO COUNT PAST TEN! YOU WERE NOTHING WITHOUT US AND BY THE TIME I'M DONE, JAPAN WILL BE NOTHING ONCE MORE!"

As the final word left his mouth, Wei felt a disturbance behind him and pivoted to face it and looked bewildered as dozens of kitsunes appeared out of thin air and rushed towards him. Regaining himself, Wei materialized his blade, took aim and the blazes of the night became even more violent as a cone of fire erupted from the Shining Hate.

Behind him, Wei heard Kagome screaming something, but did not bother to listen and mowed down as many of the blue clothed brats as possible. Yet for everyone he incinerated, it seemed that another appeared. Before he could linger on the puzzle further, something landed on his back.

Wei reached for his back, but was not fast enough to stop Shippou from attaching a charm to Wei, immobilizing him instantly. But just as when Shippou faced Kikyou nearly a year earlier, though, the charm proved to be only a temporary respite and he felt its containment effect crumbling beneath Wei's will which even now was causing the charm to glow white hot.

OH SHIT! Shippou screamed mentally as he slapped on charms as fast as he could, but saw them burn up almost as quickly as he laid them down.

"Shippou, you-" Kagome was stopped from speaking any further by the almost violent pulling of Rin, who was dragging her hurriedly to the well with surprising strength.

"You need to go back and get Lord Sesshoumaru," Rin explained just as they reached the rim of the well.

"What I need to do," Kagome replied while ripping her arm out of Rin's grasp and staring into the girls brown eyes "is have you let go of me so I can save Shippou.."

Knowing that it was pointless to argue and that they didn't have time for an argument anyway, Rin simply placed one of her legs directly behind Kagome's left leg, forming an X where their legs crossed behind the knees and shoved Kagome backwards.

For a moment, a war of balance ensued with Kagome trying to reestablish hers and Rin trying to tilt Kagome enough that the laws of gravity would take over and send her back down the well.

Grabbing hold of Rin, Kagome tried to steady herself on the young girl, but Rin was having none of it and brought her leg back towards her, causing Kagome's left leg to buckle at the knee and, while Rin pushed on her torso, causing Kagome to tilt backwards over the lip of the well.

"We don't have time for this!" Rin shouted, while twisting her way out of Kagome's grasp and ducking away as Kagome disappeared down the mouth of the well with an atypical stream of curses streaming from her mouth. "GET SESSOUMARU!"


Shippou knew the end was near as his magic crumbled like a poorly constructed dam collapsing under the onslaught of raging waters. The power of Wei would not be contained by his charms and the air around them both crackled with his might as he countered the fox child. In an explosion of light that reverberated monstrously on the spiritual plane, but was completely silent on the material one, Shippou felt Wei rip himself free of the temporary prison.

As Wei's hand closed around his throat with crushing force and cut off his air passage, Shippou wondered first, if his bravery was always going to result in his death and second, where the hell the others were.

"Well, what have we here?" Wei demanded in a voice as harsh as hell's winter. "Why, I believe it is my next meal. I don't know the recipe for fox stew though so I might have to experiment some."

Shippou tried to make a response, but only managed a gurgle that turned into a strangled cry as Wei's thumb penetrated his rib cage and began popping Shippou's ribs from the inside out. As the crushing pain annihilated his thoughts and the lack of oxygenated blood to his brain became critical, the edges of Shippou's vision sank into darkness. In the flickering remains of his vision, Shippou finally saw glorious salvation in the form of dull grey links of the chain that whipped around Wei's neck from behind and cinched itself. A mechanical roar filled Shippous sensitive ears and Wei was suddenly yanked backwards with shocked confusion written on his face.

Anything more was lost to Shippou's sight as Wei dropped him in surprise and he collapsed to the ground in a white star burst of pain and in an expanding pool of his life.