Title: When Words Fail
Author: landofthekwt
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: Betrayal ( The Wilted Rose Week
Word Count:692
Warning: None
Summary: Kikyou and Inuyasha come together to prevent Naraku from convincing them that Kikyou had betrayed Inuyasha
Once betrayed trust can never be recaptured. Still, they were not willing to let their betrayer get the last laugh. Naraku had laughed in both their faces. To Inuyasha he said that Kikyou had delivered the Jewel shard to him. He thanked her for all of his new powers. All Inuyasha could do was wonder what he had done to her to bring her to this point. He knew that Naraku had betrayed him not Kikyou, but it was still Kikyou's arrow which killed him and left him hanging for fifty years. He had forgiven her for that, but now it seemed that she had betrayed him again. He had to know why.
She could not let it go. Inuyasha could not be allowed to believe that she was on Naraku's side by helping him to kill Inuyasha. She flew to Inuyasha in hopes that he would come to listen to her. How could she explain what she was doing? To Inuyasha it certainly would appear that she was Naraku's ally even though Naraku had killed her. Naraku had told her that Inuyasha was near death. There was little she could do for him. Naraku had to get stronger and stronger so that when he got all of the jewel shards she could cast him and the jewel shards from the world. He would have to somehow stay alive until that happened.
Their meeting was a disaster. He was accusatory and rejected her attempts at affection. He would not be appeased. She had to tell him the truth and hope for the best. He would never understand her plan. How could he hope to understand when her plan required Naraku to obtain all of the Jewel shards? How could she hope to regain his trust now? .
The truth was that she could not reassure him. He would have to save himself from Naraku until she could cast Naraku and the Jewel from the world. She would do everything in her power to assist Naraku in obtaining the Jewel, but she would not assist Naraku in killing Inuyasha. Inuyasha was barely alive. He knew that she had handed Naraku the Jewel. His body bore the scars that his incarnations had inflicted. He had come to her in hope that she would vouchsafe that she had not done what Naraku had said. What could she offer him?
" Your life belongs to me"
Like a drowning man, Inuyasha clung to those words. It allowed him to believe that she had not betrayed him. That she was not Naraku's ally. That she did not hate him and wish his death. That she had a plan to kill Naraku even though he did not understand it. That she still had feelings for him. That she had not betrayed him again.
The others and especially Kagome would never understand. In their mind's Kikyou was the enemy. Kagome had saved Inuyasha from Kikyou twice and still he loved her. How could he love her and trust her when what Kikyou had done left Inuyasha near death? Kagome knew that Kikyou had tried to kill her even though she and Kikyou denied it to Inuyasha. How could such a woman be trusted over the woman that stood by his side? They did not understand the bond that Kikyou and Inuyasha shared. They had died together. They had been betrayed. . Only those who have been betrayed and gone through death together could understand the desperation that they felt
In his mind Inuyasha believed that he owed Kikyou his life because she had died following after him. He was willing to trust her for the moment and allow his life to belong to her. Words of reassurance will never work for the betrayed. Trust once broken can never be repaired. For Inuyasha there was no choice. He could not allow himself to belief that Kikyou had betrayed him again. Such a belief would kill him. Instead, he hung onto the crumb which Kikyou tossed to him because he had no other option than to believe that in the end his trust in the woman he loved would be justified.