InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Come Away With Me ❯ Smoke and Mirrors ( Chapter 15 )

~*Come Away With Me*~

Napea

Wanna see a disclaimer? Go to the first chapter and leave me the hell alone.

Beta'd chapter will be up soon. So until then ignore my blatant mistakes.

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Last Chapter: Kanna watched silently as the inu-youkai slipped out from the cave, the miko safely tucked in his pelt as he stole out into the night. She had definitely underestimated the youkai's love for the miko.

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Kagome glanced around the familiar clearing with no small amount of trepidation. Goshinboku stood tall and unyielding in front of her and Sesshoumaru as the mid-day light eerily faded to an unnatural darkness. As it got darker and darker she estimated that it was about two thirty pm. Not exactly nighttime.

She couldn't resist.

"Strange weather we're having, don't you think?" She weakly grinned at Sesshoumaru who merely looked at her as if he hadn't gotten the joke.

"I am certain that this is Naraku's doing, not the weather." He replied blandly.

Kagome frowned as she adjusted her bow on her back. "Yes, well-"

"Kagome!" A familiar voice called out. They both spun around to the direction of the owner of that voice. Sesshoumaru's arm was around Kagome's waist before Inuyasha came into view. A slow unnatural fog seemed to trail after the glaring, sword waving hanyou into the clearing.

Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru looked around the clearing warily as the fog grew thicker. Within minutes Inuyasha disappeared into the dense haze and Kagome could only feel Sesshoumaru beside her. She moved her arms to wrap around him completely, holding on for dear life.

"Sesshoumaru?" She whispered.

"I am here Kagome." His voice boomed through the fog. Her arms reflexively tightened around him.

"Can you see anything?" She whispered again, not exactly sure why she felt the need to. She unclenched one hand from Sesshoumaru's haori and waved it in front of her face but she couldn't see it. A hand grasped hers as she waved it. She gasped but relaxed when the other hand's thumb rubbed hers.

"Nothing. There is nothing." Sesshoumaru said a little more quietly this time. "Not a sound, sight, smell or taste. I have felt nothing."

Kagome crinkled her nose knowing full well that he wouldn't see it. "Taste?" She asked, the questioning clear in her voice.

"Later, Kagome. I will tell you later." He sounded exhausted and that worried her. She nodded then realized that he couldn't see her.

"Ok." She paused. "So…nothing."

"Yes, nothing." She could almost see the glare that was portrayed in his voice. Momentarily she was glad she couldn't see him.

Come to me. A male's voice whispered through the clearing…or was it her mind.

"Huh?" She questioned the voice.

"What?" Sesshoumaru echoed.

"Did you say something after you glared at me?"

"I didn't glare at you." He countered.

"Yes you did, I could tell by your voice-"

Come to me. The voice whispered again.

"There! That was it. Did you hear it?" She said in a hushed voice.

"I heard nothing Kagome." He said lowly as if he himself was worried. A cold shiver slithered its way down her spine. "I'm going to look around." He said suddenly.

"What? No! Don't leave me alone!" Pure panic.

"It will only be for a moment."

"No it won't and you know it! This is how people start dying in the movies. `I'm gonna go check it out. I'll be fine.' Then they die!" She took a moment to calm herself then continued on.

"We have to stay like this, together. This is a trap, I know it. I am not losing you." Sesshoumaru gently broke away from Kagome, resting a hand on her shoulder and another tracing the lines of her face that he couldn't see.

"I will be fine Kagome." His lips lightly brushed hers then he was gone.

Kagome pulled her bow off of her back and braced herself on it as she sank to her knees. All she could think was Something wicked this way comes and that something was most likely Naraku.

And now she was a sitting duck.

Come.

She couldn't help it.

"SHUT…UP!" She yelled into the mist. A light chuckle was her only answer. "Naraku." She spat violently.

"You called?" the detached voice asked.

"Actually I didn't." Kagome stood, readying her bow and knotting an arrow but she still couldn't see anything.

"Now, now is that anyway to greet me?" The voice was silky, almost slithering down her skin. She felt like jumping in the nearest lake.

"What do you want Naraku?" She said with a sigh. No answer came. Instead the fog began to slowly clear. Kagome started, as she was able to make out more and more until she could see fully.

Again her heart sank.

Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha were lying in the clearing, their blood soaking the area around them. Neither were moving. She made a dash for them only to be thrown back and falling to the ground by one of Naraku's barriers. She stood and went as close to the edge of the barrier as she could and stared numbly at Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru.

"What did you do to them?" She asked, her voice thick with unshed tears.

"I did nothing." The voice slithered again, still no body to go with it. "They did that to each other."

"Liar!" She screamed suddenly, all previous humor or cheerfulness gone. Naraku chuckled.

"Granted I may have…coerced them but they killed each other on their own."

"Liar…" She whispered weakly.

"I don't appreciate being called a liar Kagome. Your dogs killed each other." She could almost hear the shrug in his voice. "Live with it. Now, Kagome, it's time."

Kagome looked around wildly as a thin grey smoke slithered up her legs and toward her face. She tried to bat it away with her hands to no avail; it just kept swirling up her body. Little particles of something like dust seemed to fly up her nose and down to her lungs making her cough violently.

"It's easier if you don't fight it Kagome." He said soothingly but there was no way in hell she'd let go. She sank to her knees as she glared defiantly at the bodies of the two she loved the most.

Sesshoumaru still looked warm, there was a faint pink glow to his cheeks. She frowned and looked at Inuyasha. The same, his cheeks were pink too. That much blood loss would have drained their faces of any color. Maybe it was smeared blood? But…on both of them…it didn't seem likely.

A moment later the bodies flicked transparent for only a heartbeat then looked perfectly normal. Kagome blinked, thinking that her eyes were playing a trick on her but it happened again. It was as if the bodies were phasing in and out of reality.

"What are you doing to me?" She gasped out, feeling her body weaken more and more with each passing moment.

"Only bringing you to your potential." The voice whispered but it was different somehow.

She glanced over as the bodies flickered out again. It looked like the glare in glass or a mirror. She leaned over, slamming her fists against the ground. "Liar." She coughed out painfully. "They…they're not dead!"

Kagome pushed off the ground with a sudden burst of energy; her aura flared a light pink around her body. Moments later it blew up around her pushing away the grey smoke then straight through Naraku's shield. Whatever had entered her lungs was gone either purified or another of Naraku's illusions.

She ran to Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, kneeling between the two as the blood on the ground faded away to green grass. He had just knocked them out. Kagome gave a sigh of relief then started to wake them, using her aura to get rid of any poisons or potions. Inuyasha woke first, mumbling something about smoke and mirrors as Sesshoumaru followed in consciousness.

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Smoke and mirrors was right. Kanna turned her mirror clockwise to finish cleaning the illusions from the clearing, the normal daylight returning. Time's greatest illusions were done with smoke and mirrors.

Funny thing, time is. From the beginning Kagome played with time. From the very first time she fell through that well, she had altered time to suit her needs. Yet again, she had played with time by helping Sesshoumaru return to their time. Kagome kept playing with time; it was her fault everything was different, that events had been altered.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, mirrors were impervious to time. When Kagome radically changed the events that had already played out Kanna had felt it in her mirrors. Kagome and Sesshoumaru thought they were the only ones aware of the timeline shift but there was one other. Kanna remembered everything.

It's a terrible thing to play with time.

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TBC

Seven months ago I promised to have this chapter up. That was the first week into my Spring semester. I had no idea I was going to be so busy that semester. Mind you this isn't an excuse, it's a reason an explanation as it were. I spent the majority of that semester and this summer semester depressed for reasons I'm not going to divulge.

Now that I've learned not to make promises like that I'll let you know that I'll still be updating sporadically. HOWEVER, I will try to do a better job of updating at least once a month (remember that this isn't a promise, it's an "I'll try" statement.)

Thank you for understanding and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Cheers,

~*Napea*~