"Why…isn't…this…working?" Kagome bemoaned jumping up and down in the bottom of the bone eaters well becoming increasingly irritated. "Come on and wake up you old demon bones! I have the sacred jewel. I know you all want it. Come and get it and bring us home."
"I don't think it is working Kagome." Rin said. "Maybe you should jump harder."
"Or yell louder." Shippo chimed in jumping down onto the ground. "Hey you dirty, no good demons! Wake up." Hearing a creaking sound he immediately froze before jumping back to her shoulder.
"Kagome? Rin, Shippo?" Her mothers voice sounded from above them.
"Yeah we're here." Kagome replied feeling defeated. Every day for two weeks she had tried everything she could think of to reopen the portal to the past but knew it could be temperamental.
"I made some lunch if anyone is hungry." Her mother offered.
"You two go up. I'll be there in a minute." Kagome said.
"What if it happens and we're not here?" Rin asked concerned.
"I won't go through, promise." Kagome soothed.
"Alright." Rin finally said going to the ladder to climb up. As she reached the top Shippo jumped from Kagome to the ladder as well.
"Kagome?" Looking at her as he perched from one of the rungs she glanced at him in question. "If Naraku never existed then does that mean all of the awful things he did never happened?"
"I guess so." Kagome replied.
"Then that would mean none of the good stuff did either, like you going to the past in the first place?" He asked. Kagome felt her lips draw together as she nervously began to chew on her lower one.
"I don't know." She said softly. It had never occurred to her the ramifications of what her wish could be.
It would make sense and even more seeing as how the jewel had returned to her body, it had never been taken out if she had undone everything they went through but then why was it a part of her in the first place?
If Kikyo had never been killed then she wouldn't have been cremated with the sacred jewel in the first place, it never would have become fused with her soul, which was why Kagome had had it physically in her body.
At his questioning the thought terrified her; she had never met Sesshomaru, Inuyasha or anyone else. What if none of them had never met either? All of the events that led them to becoming acquainted had been due to Narakus influence in their lives. Without him none of it had happened.
"Okay." Shippo said quietly climbing out of the well. Waiting until he was gone she sat down in the packed dirt and stared up at the ceiling of the well house.
"But it did happen, all of it. There's no way it was undone." She said to herself suddenly becoming fearful. Did that mean she had never met Inuyasha? If Naraku hadn't been created then he and Kikyo wouldn't have fought, then how did she still end up with the sacred jewel?
After some time she climbed out walking up the wooden steps and closing the door behind her. Going to the shrine storehouse she thought maybe her grandfather would have an answer for her.
"Hey gramps." She greeted.
"Oh Kagome. No luck with the well?" He asked glancing at her. Shaking her head she rubbed at one of her arms.
"I wished the demon Naraku away, I wished he had never been created from the thief Onigumo. Everything that happened was because of all of the wicked things Naraku did. Did I…mess up and change all of that?" She questioned.
"Perhaps." He said giving her his full attention.
"I have given your situation a lot of thought over the past year and, from what you have said you were sent to the past to pick up where the Lady Kikyo left off, if you will. Your soul may have had unfinished business and now that it is done it can rest peacefully and resume the life it preferred."
"Maybe but why was Shippo and Rin brought here as well? They don't belong here." She wondered.
"It may have been simply that they were in close proximity to you and were taken as well." He offered. Thinking on it Kagome closed her eyes.
"So, everything we did…did it really happen or did I erase it?" She asked timidly afraid of the answer.
"I am no expert in traveling between periods or what the consequences could be but given that all of you remember the events it could be possible an alternate time line was created." Her grandfather said.
"An alternate timeline?"
"Yes. As I said I had been curious about the entire circumstances of you being able to pass through time and read up on different theories a bit."
"What you were in my dear was a time paradox. It is believed that this can cause branching from the original course of events to create new ones without the original being directly affected."
"So, in some other universe Kikyo and Inuyasha never had their falling out and maybe he did become fully human. Then I would have had no reason to go to the past in the first place."
"Precisely." Nodding in agreement Kagome reopened her eyes to look at him.
"How do I know though? Not being able to go back there, how do I know that the past wasn't changed?" She queried.
"Unless you get a definite answer I'm afraid you may never know." He responded.
"Right." Lowering her head she sighed.
"I know that it isn't the answer you want but it may be the reality of the situation." He added.
"I know." She relented.
"All you can do now is look to the future and help those two adjust to living here. If the well reopens someday then so be it but you should prepare yourselves for the likelihood that it possibly never will."
"You're right, you're absolutely right." She agreed nodding her head a few times. "Thank you grandpa."
"You're welcome my dear." As she walked out of the building she saw Rin and Shippo sitting together eating their sandwiches and drinking from their juice boxes. Taking them in she smiled softly.
Bringing her eyes up to the sky she hoped that one day she would get a sign that at least what they had accomplished that day had been for the betterment of everyone and had improved her friends lives.
The fact that the shrine had been there meant someone had built it and kept it safe for centuries. Who else could there be to do that besides Sesshomaru?
She felt lonely without him and cheated out of what they had planned. He must have been beside himself when he saw they were gone, vanished across time.
'I hope he hadn't returned to his old ways.' She thought to herself fearful that he had sequestered himself off from the others without she or Rin there.
'Gramps is right though. I can't change what happened, I can't take it back, all I can do now is move forward. Rin and Shippo deserve me to be the best I can be, no matter what era we're all in. At least we have each other.'
Scanning the sky as if it would provide her with some answer she shook her head slowly before looking ahead of herself to go and sit beside the children.