"Are you ready?"

Kagome nodded, wedged safely beneath Inuyasha's arm as he tucked her into his body at the lip of the well. It was a nostalgic feeling for them both, one they welcomed with comfort even as Kagome's family waved from the top of the steps, calling out reminders and fare wells.

"Don't forget to tell your friends we say hello!" Kagome's mother called, "Tell them congratulations!"

"Be safe!" Gramps cried, "Use the dried root I slipped into the side of your bag, it's an ancient remedy to ward off illness handed down from the-"

"Gramps, they're gonna have to leave today." Sota interrupted, earning a grumble from his elder, then waved to his sister. "Kick some demon butt, sis!"

"I'll see you all soon!" Kagome assured, even knowing as she did that the promise was an empty one. Unless of course, this doesn't work. Turning to face Inuyasha once more and allowing the final image of her family to become fastened in her mind, she wrapped her arm around his waist, readying herself for the jump.

"Go ahead, Kagome." Inuyasha encouraged softly, squeezing her hand. Looking her meaningfully in the eye he added, "I'll be right behind you."

Without prolonging the ache in her chest, she let go of her grip on the well, on Inuyasha, and kicked away from the wood, allowing her body to sail toward the darkness beneath.

At first, she was sure she would hit the bottom with a resounding thud and a dark revelation of failure, as was the result of every jump she had made in the past three years, but no sooner than she had clenched her eyes shut at the sudden gravity of her descent than a powerful light had tunneled its way around her, shifting through the fabric of space and time as she fell.

Sometime after she entered the vortex, she heard Inuyasha descending behind her, and let out a sigh of relief. Soon they both came to a floating halt; Inuyasha gently set foot to the dirt floor of the long dry well and took in one deep breath, confirming with the scents around them that they were back in the era he had once hoped they would both call home. Looking over his shoulder, he smiled at Kagome with his whole heart, elated just to see her standing there as the breath of the feudal era welcomed their return.

Leaping from the well with Kagome on his back, he didn't take long to start off running. Although he wanted to extend the alone time with her as much as possible, something had begun to worry him. He had noticed Kagome barely picking at her food that morning and the night before, passing it off as excitement for their reunion; yet a paleness had crept its way back into her face, drawing dark circles under her eyes. Her lips seemed to be drying every time he looked at her, and though she wouldn't say so, he had seen her rest her weight against walls and tables as she moved her way through the shrine, refusing offers for help.

Pattering through the forest at a rapid, darting pace, Inuyasha reminded her to hold on, feeling her grasp on him weaken. Though it was late morning, she still seemed tired, confirming this as she rested her head on his shoulder and let her arms begin to hang. He rubbed one carefully, throwing it closer around his neck as she began to slip.

"Hey, Kagome." She mumbled a little and he shook the arm he still held until she raised her head slightly. "You falling asleep?"

"Oh, s-sorry." She gripped his shoulders again and he felt her body go tense, clearly determined to harness her energy and stay alert.

When her arms began to tremor, he stopped running.

Setting her down with a careful crouch, he turned quickly to take her in his arms again, sliding one forearm beneath her knees and catching her back to cradle her with the other. As soon as he had settled her against him, he took off at a run again. She hadn't even acknowledged the switch, simply cuddled into his chest. He noticed her forehead had begun to glisten with sweat in the morning sunlight, and her heart began to trill.

Ignoring the odd villager that had awoken and begun muddling about the pathways as he swiftly advanced on Kaede's hut, he came to a screeching halt just outside where Kaede herself sat, a bemused smile that had been adorning her face falling quickly into a horrified frown. She took in the breathless hanyou and unconscious miko, standing to her feet as rapidly as her body would allow.

"Inuyasha, is it really Kagome? But what has happened?"

"Kaede, I know this is a lot," He clenched Kagome closer to him, feeling the eyes of some early workers observing the commotion while heading to the fields or their various chores. "We should get her inside. I think she's been poisoned… or maybe it's venom. I can't be sure."

Kaede briskly pushed the partition into her home and allowed Inuyasha to swoop beneath, carrying Kagome over to a mat on the floor where he laid her gently, noting that she didn't respond, so deeply asleep the motion apparently didn't reach her.

"Poisoned? What are ye talking about?" Kaede joined him, kneeling by the girl with impressive swiftness for her age, quickly assessing the great aura that always swelled around the young miko as in her memory. Lifting one hand to Kagome's face as Inuyasha explained how she had first succumbed to illness, Kaede listened silently, working with an urgency only hidden by her expert application.

When Inuyasha had finished explaining the details of Kagome's mystery attacker, how they had slunk off battered and bruised toward what Inuyasha thought must have been a healer– but now, he knew, was a place where they might regenerate, recuperate, and when they were ready, come for revenge – Kaede sighed and turned to the hanyou, appraising him with a frown of concern.

"Well?" Inuyasha snapped, as was his usual demeanor. Kaede might have rolled her eyes had the situation not been so serious, something Inuyasha seemed to know as he stared down at Kagome, worry clear in the expression that shook his lip, that held his shoulders hunched and tight.

"Ye said this creature that gave Kagome the poison, did so furtively, like a human." Kaede knit her eyebrows together in concentration as she considered the details that had brought Kagome back to them. While Kaede thought, she noticed Inuyasha's eyes never roved from her still and pallid form. "Even disguised themselves as human. This is not something a demon would do of their own volition. Think. Why would a demon need to go about such secret methods; and such weak ones?"

Inuyasha stared down at the floor, the silence deafening as he stumbled over the question. What would a demon ever gain from acting as a human?

"Maybe they're stuck that way." The thought fell out of his mouth, a simple suggestion that struck Kaede as a stumbled upon truth.

"Stuck?" The aging woman rubbed her chin, nodding thoughtfully, "Stuck, yes. Intending to utilize Kagome somehow to regain their original form. After all, if they only sought to attack her, why the change of locations? It is possible they even mean to use her to reach the Bone Eaters Well."

"But why go to the first location at all?" Inuyasha blinked. "Unless… well, now that I think of it, Kagome couldn't confirm exactly where he took her first. She was pretty out of it from just having had… you know, whatever he gave her, and made the assumption." Growling lowly in his throat, he tried to withhold the anger beginning to rise in him. He had to stay focused while they were getting somewhere with their theories. "I thought it was odd when she told me he'd taken her on request as well, back to her home. Maybe… maybe getting near the well was his objective, as you said."

"Perhaps this entity has also been blocked off from our world for three years." Keade suggested. "Or perhaps an entity of the future found out about the well and wanted to use it for unknown reasons; we can only speculate. However, in the case of Kagome's illness…" She sighed, forehead creasing as she went on, "It is as I thought. She is not truly poisoned, but under a spell."

"A… a spell?" Inuyasha ground his teeth together, flexing his claws eagerly. Although earlier in her time, he had gently asked Kagome if she might want to visit the healers of her era, he was glad now that he had come back to the feudal era seemingly just in time. Kagome had refused to visit a healer anyway, insisting the best way to heal, for her, would be to forget. Now that this option had been revoked, Inuyasha prepared to hear Kaede's diagnosis.

"Kagome has been infected with a dark magic," the elder croaked, voice still cracking into wakefulness as the day eased into afternoon. The sun began to rise, bringing along with it a dry heat that drew even more concern in Inuyasha as he watched Kagome shiver on the mat. "It is not a poisoning or a venom as ye had suspected with a simple antidote, rather, a complicated enchantment that weakens her."

"Tell me what to do." Inuyashed demanded, voice strangled by the fear that began to overtake him.

"Inu-Inuyasha?"

Kagome's eyes opened slowly. Shuddering, she rose to sit with her legs splayed to one side, shakily rooting to the floorboards. Touching one hand to her forehead, she moaned lightly.

"Kagome, you shouldn't get up. Just lay back and rest." Inuyasha was upon her before she could open her eyes again, trying to urge her back down with gentle caution.

She pushed his hands away, leaning into him as she fell forward to halt his motions. Then, turning slowly to Kaede with a smile lighting up her face, she said in a voice just above a whisper,

"Kaede… it has been too long."

Kaede returned her smile as she watched Inuyasha protest Kagome's rest rebellion and push her back into laying. She had never seen the hanyou quite so attentive, or so genuine with his approach. He had matured, surely, and now with Kagome back, she was eager to see what more was to become of the insolent pup who had grown to be, as it seemed, a good and decent man.

"I agree Kagome, it has." Kaede's calm voice responded, "Welcome back."