Challenge Collection by Sessylove219 by Sessylove219

Despair and Hope

Title: Despair and Hope

Challenge: Priestess Skye's Wind challenge, June 1, 2009

Words: 1200 exactly according to Microsoft Word

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, duh.

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She made her journey here again. She came every year. It was here, thirty years ago, that her life had changed. It was so strange that here, in this place, that her life was so drastically pulled apart. It was not at the Bone Eater's Well that her life changed, as some would have thought. It was in this place. The place of the final battle with Naraku, where her life had changed.

They had all fought so long and hard. A battle which had taken three full days had marked the end of the vile hanyou. Her unlikely band of friends had fought together, marking their last days as a group. Miroku fell first, he never saw the end to the curse that had marked the males of his line. He was killed by Kohaku, the scythe attached to a chain coming forth from Miroku's breast, making a huge hole and tearing out his heart. Sango, in a flurry of tears and rage killed her brother as she was also cut down by his blade, they died together in a pool of blood.

Shippou soon followed Sango and Miroku, dying to protect Rin, along with Jakken and Aun. The three of them were not enough to save the little girl. Kagome could still remember the rage and despair that filled the eyes of the youkai lord as he saw his ward and retainer slain; she had felt something similar in her own heart.

She had tried to help the kitsune, but she was blocked off, as was Sesshoumaru, by the true form of Naraku. He had suffered losses as well. He was alone at that time. No incarnations could protect him. He knew that this was the final battle, he would have to win or perish.

A smile flitted across his face as he tried to neutralize one of his greatest threats. He had scented Kikyou. He could tell when Inuyasha did as well. She walked into the clearing, and Inuyasha turned to her, leaving his attention off of Naraku for only a second. It only took a second as a tentacle pierced his brain, shooting right through his eye. Kagome and Kikyou screamed for him to watch out, to protect himself, but both were too late. He began to fall, dead before his body had fully hit the ground. Kikyou ran to him, but Kagome turned to Naraku before she saw the wretched beast kill Kikyou for a second time, shattering her clay body with a tentacle and returning the piece of Kagome's soul. Kikyou fell on top of Inuyasha, they were together now...

Kagome felt her sorrow and rage awaken every bit of her power, something that was helped with the return of her soul. She had more power now, being complete at last. Her body was glowing so bright she seemed to be made of light. Sesshoumaru walked over to her side, his eyes still red with fury, and the two exchanged a look that gave Naraku pause even as he saw his tormentors fall. Sesshoumaru pulled Bakusaiga, and Kagome notched an arrow, saying nothing as they let loose their most powerful attacks in tandem. They hit the hanyou and his body started to lose cohesion. He knew they would have their victory, but he could at least take something from them. He let his body implode, knowing that the blast would destroy something they each held dear.

He knew that Sesshoumaru's blade could bring back the dead, but had also heard that a body was needed. He was sure that the youkai lord could pull himself out of range of the blast that would result in Naraku's last bit of malevolence, but he would not be able to reach the body of his ward or retainer in time to save them from destruction.

Sesshoumaru could hear the blast starting and grabbed Kagome around the waist and vaulted as high into the air as he could. She screamed as she realized what was happening.

"No! You have to save them! You have to bring them back!"

"Stop struggling, miko," Sesshoumaru said. His cold, indifferent voice was the same, but inside, he was grieving already. He had lost Rin, and even worse, he had lost Inuyasha. When he saw his brother fall, he had planned to bring him back. Inuyasha may have been a hanyou, but they were still brothers. He would never have left him dead. He was even more upset over this than he was about Rin. She had already been resurrected twice, she had had her chances. His brother had suffered so much, and he was the cause of a lot of it. He would never get to make amends now...

Kagome carefully made her way into the slight indentation in the ground that was still there, even after all this time. This was the last place any had ever seen the hanyou, the place where he had taken everything from her. When the dust cleared that fateful day exactly thirty years ago, there was nothing in this clearing, no sign of any of those that she had loved. The only thing that was there were the pieces of the Shikon no Tama. She had gone to it and, using her pieces, fused it together. When the jewel was whole again, she was going to wish her friends alive again.

Sesshoumaru watched the little miko, and was hoping that she would use her wish to bring back those on their side who had lost their lives. He was just as disappointed as she was when the jewel re-entered her body. He turned to her, letting her see the pain and suffering in his once-more amber eyes, and walked away, intent on never seeing her again.

Now, as she sat on this hallowed ground again; she began to cry, just as she did every year. She had cried every day those first few years, especially as she could no longer travel the well, and Kaede died. She had so much sorrow in her life. She soon began to lose some of her sorrow as she noticed that she was not aging, and that even the largest of cuts healed within minutes. She would live to see her family again. She was immortal, or she thought she was. She didn't want to jump off a cliff to prove that she was right, but was pretty sure she was. She had at first thought it was another curse of the Shikon no Tama, a trinket that had taken so much from her. She would never get to rejoin her friends. The thought of seeing her family again helped this.

She hated the thought of being alone for eternity, but as the wind blew and she noticed someone else approaching this marker of sorrow, she thought perhaps she might not have to share forever with no one. Seeing his eyes still so full of pain, she thought that maybe there was only one other that could know what her regrets were like, and that by being together, they could find a new start here at this place where it had once felt as if her world was ending.