InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Fates ❯ What the Fates Have in Store ( Prologue )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Prologue: What the Fates Have in Store....

The journey back from the final battle with Naraku was awkward, and made mostly in silence. To Kagome, it spelt out her fate in bold letters - that, and the fact that Kikyou traveled with them. Inuyasha could barely look at her, and Kikyou did with a steady gaze that smacked of pity, and at the same time, triumph.

Inhaling deeply, she fought to keep herself together. She felt as though she was under a death sentence and was being escorted to the gallows. With an internal dark, haunted laugh, she wondered what the excuse was going to be; what reason would he give to send her back down the well forever?

Because she could tell, that's what was in store for her. She felt bitterness well up inside her... why had the kami even sent her here?

She was jerked from her thoughts as they reached Kaede's village, and Inuyasha began to fall back at a glance from Kikyou, moving to walk with Kagome.

"I need to talk to you, Kagome. Can we - go somewhere, alone?" He stressed the word as Sango shot him a dark, suspicious glance.

Kagome had to swallow - hard, to even get her voice to work, but finally she said, "Yeah... let's just get this over with so you can get on with your life."

He glanced at her, eyes wide. She knows... dammit, this is so hard! How am I supposed to deal with this? Nodding, he gestured to the path they always took to the well, guilt evident in his gaze.

Kagome looked around once more, impressing her friends into her memory: she knew for sure in that moment, that she would never see any of them again.

Yeah, why wouldn't he kick me back through the well now? I'm not needed anymore - the job of shard detecter is over. Now he's got Kikyou and he's about to have the completed and purified jewel. There's no more use for me.

Finally, pain beginning to short circuit her mind, she turned and followed the hanyou into the trees, leaving the village she'd thought of as home for almost three years for the very last time.

It hurt so much she could barely breathe.

And the worst, she knew, was still to come.

---sSs---

Inuyasha couldn't bring himself to look at her as he escorted her to the well for the last time. It made it worse, in his eyes, that she knew what he was doing. He hated this - it hurt, but Kikyou, and Kaede were right. He loved Kikyou, because she was the one he was supposed to be with.

Kagome had been sent back here to right the wrong done to his and Kikyou's souls - and make sure that the incarnation of himself that was actually meant for her managed to be born, because if she'd never gotten him off that tree, his soul would have remained trapped for eternity - thus breaking the kami-ordained circle of life and death between he and the soul that both Kikyou and Kagome carried.

Now that all that had been accomplished, Kagome had to go back - it was time for his next incarnation to find her.

But explaining this to Kagome wasn't going to be easy.

As they arrived at the well, Kagome put up a hand, and said, "You know what, Inuyasha, you don't have to justify your choice to me - in fact, I don't think I even want to know what lame excuse you were going to find. I'll just make it easy and go."

Inuyasha growled at her, annoyed. "No. You need to listen, wench. Sit down with me and hear what I have to say."

She looked at him for the briefest of moments, and then just seemed to crumble in on herself, and his eyes closed with pain as she slumped to the ground, her will to fight all gone.

He sat next to her and folded his hands in his haori, gaze locked on the horizon. Drawing a deep breath, he said, "This whole mess - everything that happened, had to happen, you know. Don't ever doubt that. You needed to be here - for certain things to come to pass. But now, they have, and you have someone waiting for you in your time. But only because you came here - if you hadn't, he wouldn't be waiting."

She stared at him. "What the hell are you talking about, Inuyasha?"

He flinched, that word slipping from her told him just how upset she was, because Kagome wasn't one much for profanity.

"Our souls, Kagome. That's what I'm talking about. Our souls are bound together - each time one of us is born, the other is as well, and we find each other in every lifetime - we're meant to be together. Or at least, our souls are."

He sighed then, the sound mournful.

"That's the point here. Why do you think your soul is so much larger than when Kikyou had it? Because you've grown. The thing is, I'm the incarnation meant for the Kikyou incarnation of your soul... the one meant for you is in your era aleady - and he's waiting. My soul, the way it is right now is no match for yours - it hasn't grown enough in me to be ready for you. But his has. That's why you need to go back."

Kagome stood, pushing away from him. "Is that what Kikyou told you?"

He leaped to his feet as well. "Her... and Kaede. She agreed - because it's the truth. And what's more, Kagome, you know it, deep down. You have to go back - but I'll be waiting for you when you get there, you know. Nothing could break that, because that's the way it's meant to be."

Kagome laughed, bitter anger spilling through a sound that wasn't in any way meant to portray humor. "Give me a break, Inuyasha. Kaede, huh? And why wouldn't she agree with her own sister? You didn't have to feed me this bullshit - I'm not stupid. I told you I'd go and that you didn't have to justify crap to me."

She turned, anger turning to anguish in her heart.

"At least now I won't ever have to hear how I'm just the reincarnation, a copy, inferior at that, could never be good enough... I guess there's the silver lining." She looked at a rather shocked Inuyasha. "You could'a just pushed me down the damn well like before, you know. At least that would have been honest."

He reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into a hug, holding her tightly to him for a few last seconds, inhaling her scent and committing it to memory. Then, reluctantly, he pushed away from her. Holding out his hand, he waited while she dropped the jewel into it, then said, "Go, Kagome. I'll be waiting for you, mate of my soul."

She watched him step back clutching the jewel, and laughed, bitterness finally overflowing its place in her heart, before climbing onto the rim of the well. "Don't get your hopes up, Inuyasha. My fate is my own, and you made your choice. I will never share a destiny with you now. Have a happy life."

And before he could say anything, hurt clear in both their eyes, she jumped...

He never saw her in that life again.