InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Shades of Gray ❯ Desertion ( Chapter 9 )

Did ya like the cliffie?? ^.--

Don't hurt me!! lol...the next chapter is complete and ready! I'll be lucky if I can get through without crying...I'm very emotional today...*Sniff*

Anyways, Thanks everyone for their support and encouraging words!

Heeeeere comes chappie! ^.--

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Shades of Gray

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Chapter 9: Desertion

[InuYasha's World]

Finally finding his voice, he screamed the first thing that came to his mind. He called out to her, as he neared closer.

"Kikyo!!!!!!!!"

~~

[Kagome's World]

Kagome felt herself being let go. As soon as her body was released, she turned in mid-air and reached for the closely-approaching jewel.

She waited. She waited for the few seconds that seemed like an eternity. But she never felt it. She never felt him grab her and carry her to safety. Forget the jewel. If he picked her up and landed with her, they would be together again.

But she never felt it.

She would hold him and maybe even cry in his arms. Nothing would matter anymore. She would be with him, enveloped in his strong arms, holding her as he promised to her under his breath that everything would be alright and he would never let anything hurt her, never let betray her.

But she never heard it.

A part of her was painfully aware to just how hard it was to hear his voice call out to the other. To the one he chose to save. To the one that just wasn't her. Her heart seemed to die at that very moment. It was amazing how a lifetime of hopes and dreams had been shattered in one waking second.

"Kikyo!!!!!!!"

She winced as a few tears escaped their confines through the corners of her eyes. No matter how she tried, she couldn't keep them from falling. Not like it mattered anymore. Nothing really mattered anymore. Except the jewel.

Reaching out, she grabbed onto the jewel tightly, snapping the chain as her weight and velocity carried her down and out of the reach of the many tentacles that had begun to shoot out after her. Her actions had obviously caught Naraku's attention, not to mention InuYasha's.

But she didn't notice. All she saw was the tentacles that darted towards her. As soon as they got they're goal, they would kill her in an instant. Or maybe they would continue to let her fall, just to let her suffer a long, painful death.

Her face set in hard determination, she positioned herself so that her head was falling first, her feet following behind. She could feel the wind blow past her ears faster, and faster, until all she heard was an increasingly high shrill around her. She locked her legs together, and as she gripped the jewel tightly in her hand, she placed her arms tightly by her side, instantly increasing her speed. Bending her head back slightly, she could see that the fog was approaching quickly, only a few hundred metres between her and her fate. Straightening her head again, she raised her eyesight to see that she was now faster than the tentacles, which were slowly losing ground. She saw a flash of red, and averted her glance to the hanyou now desperately scaling down the wall in an attempt to reach her.

He almost reached her, before losing his grip and having to pause on a ledge. She caught his eyes, and what she saw angered her more than anything else.

Determination. No pain? No sorrow? No Love?!

If all that he was coming after her for was to spare her life, then she could do without. She didn't need him as badly as he thought she did. She could live without him better than he could ever imagined. She was kidding herself, she knew, but she wouldn't let him see it.

She wouldn't let herself get hurt again. Whoever said it was better to love and lost than to not love at all should be shot. She glanced back down again, to see the the fog was now at around a hundred metres and closing fast.

She resumed her previous position to find InuYasha on the move again. As the fog closed in, Kagome felt it surround her. The tiny drops of rain fell on her face, arms, legs, everywhere, and for ten seconds, she felt at peace. She felt that everything would be alright, that everything would work out in the end. The feeling was just so wonderful, she wanted to cry tears of relief and joy.

But the feeling was short-lived as the mist left, leaving her mind to jolt back to reality, and fast. She looked down again to see that there was indeed a very large, very fast river running another hundred metres below her. She also had failed to see before the very large and sharp rocks protuding from the icy waters.

All around her was a radius of at least sixty metres to the nearest piece of land. To her right she saw InuYasha scaling the ledges sticking out from the wall in unruly ways.

She closed her eyes as floods of memories rushed through her. InuYasha pinned to the Goshinboku tree. InuYasha falling of her bicycle. InuYasha hugging her...

InuYasha...InuYasha...InuYasha! She opened her eyes slowly, as she brought her hands to cover her heart. In her right hand, the jewel glowed a now luminous pink, now purified. Her left hand covered her right, and pressed it tightly against her chest. Even in death, she would not let go. Her heart squeezed she turned to look at InuYasha trying to get to the bottom and catch her before she hit. But they both knew it was too late.

He turned to look at her, and she now saw the true fear in his eyes, through everything else. Fear of losing...her. He had chosen to save Kikyo, but now Kagome wasn't sure if he didn't regret it. She quickly checked the distance between her and the water. Fifty metres.

She looked him in the eye, love and sadness radiating from her once shining eyes. She watched as he broke eye contact and leapt one last time to the rocky floor below, some sixty metres away from where she was to fall into the water. He started to run to her, but stopped when he saw that she would hit for sure.

Kagome straightened herself, as a lone tear finally passed, and flew into the air, a piece of her heart. Right after, Kagome hit the water, head first. The first thing she felt was pain, radiating through her spine and head. The next thing was the sting of the cold, seeping through to her bones. She couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't even move. The last thing she remembered was the darkness of the icy depths she was condemned to, before her head connected with something hard, rendering her unconscious.

~~~

[InuYasha's World]

As soon as he had set Kikyo down, he had jumped over the side of the cliff and had started descending as fast as his legs could carry him. He glanced at Kagome's form falling downward at break-neck speeds. He saw the tentacles lose their distance and sighed a short-lived breathe of relief. He still had to reach the bottom before her.

The next time he looked at her, he saw her eyes. Anger. Hate. Pain? The cheery eyes he had known, the ones who never lost their shine were now dull and empty. He winced as he realized that he was probably the cause of such emotions.

He turned back after he saw her enter the cloudy mist, and leapt in right after her. It had taken himself to regain his footing once his vision had cleared, and he saw her falling faster, gaining more speed from her weight propelling her through the air.

He focused on his steps and his speed, as he desperately clambered down. It was a race against time now, whether he would get there in time depended on how fast he was, and there were no second chances. He pushed himself harder and harder, never stopping the physically exhausting pace, quickening it whenever he could. He could now see the ground, and he urged himself forward. He looked back at Kagome to lock with her eyes, possibly for the last time. This time, though, he saw love. Love for him. Sadness. He felt his heart wrech, and he wanted to kick himself for being such an idiot. Probably multiple times.

He finally reached the rocky floor after what seemed like an eternity, and started running blindly, jumping over the rocks in his way in Kagome's direction when he froze in horror.

It all happened as if time itself stopped just for them. Kagome's body twenty metres above the running water. Ten. Five. He watched as her body entered the water with a loud splash like a projectile, any trace of her disappearing into the black depths.

He panicked. He ran to the side of the river, following the currents, searching for any sign of her, of her body, anything. When a minute passed and he couldn't see her, he began to feel a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Kagome?"

No answer. Nothing. He was only answered by the roaring tides and currents, the crashing of the water slamming against the merciless rocks.

"Kagome!"

Still no answer. He began to doubt he would ever see her again. Her face appeared infront of his eyes. Her smile radiating off her, how her cheeks would turn in a certain way. Her eyes sparkling with laughter, her hair flying ever so slightly in the small breeze. Kagome. Never again. He couldn't take it, couldn't accept the fact that she was gone.

"KAGOME!!!"

He fell to his knees and punched the rock beside him, cracking it with the sheer force of his loss and pain. His silken bangs shadowed his eyes as the water swallowed up any possible sounds. His shoulders began shaking slightly. A few small drops ran down his cheeks, and mingled at his chin, falling as one to mix with the salty water inbetween the rocks below him.

He hadn't cried since his mom died. Since he had lost a person that he had loved more than his own life. That he would readily give up his own life to keep them living. And now it had happened again. And it was his fault. He knew it would happen but he had gone for Kikyo instead. How could he have? He had sacrificed the one thing left to him that really mattered.

He pounded his fist into the rock again, this time with less force, unable to commit to the drive he needed to put behind him. He hit it again. And again. Every time with less and less force until it was like a mere tap to the rock.

He climbed back up to find both Kikyo and Naraku gone. He didn't care right now. How could he? Saving Kikyo wasn't worth losing Kagome, (AN: WooHoo! Darn straight! ^.--) but he had done it anyway. How was he going to tell Miroku and Sango? How on earth would he tell Shippo? She was like a mother to him. Forget how he was going to tell them, the question was what was he going to tell them? He abandoned her to save Kikyo, and let her fall to her death in an icy river? He didn't think so. Truth be told, he didn't know about what to do anymore. It seemed everytime he tried to make things right, he only screwed up worse. And this time he couldn't undo it.

He set off at a slow pace to the direction of the hut. At this rate it would take him about a day to reach it. Not that he wanted to get there. He wasn't looking forward to telling them that Kagome was dead...because of him. He lowered his head and his his eyes from the world, afraid that if anyone saw him he would break down right there.

~~~

In a small stream, one that broke off from a fast river, cold, muddy water clouded around a body lying on the riverbed.

If anyone had passed by, they would have taken it for dead. But if one walked up and looked closely, they would see the small figure breathing shallowly through the cold.

*~*~*~*

End to the cliffies!!...Not the story....but the cliffies!! For now that is hehehe ^.--

I had to hurry and get this chapter up, lest my friend kills me, so I'll try and get the next one up A.S.A.P. ^_^

Thanks to everyone for your support! Keep R&R-ing! =P

Love yaZ ^.--

*Moshi**