Warning: If mature and explicit materials offend you please leave. This story contains rape (if you haven't read the first chapter) and abortion.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha is not mine. If it were, it would have ended LONG before it really did.

Vesper

It didn't take Kikyou a while to realize that the curse Naraku bestowed upon her was also extended to Kaede. As the servants aged and passed on, Kaede stopped aging on her fifteenth year. It had been over thirty years, and Kikyou still looked like the naïve young woman who fell into a half-demon's ruse. The country slowly turned into a constant battlefield.

She tried to deny it at first because it wasn't possible. She couldn't have had the ability to do so at her age…but the signs became too obvious, and she dreaded the possibility that the gods hated her so much to give her another curse. She didn't understand because her body had stopped aging, thus it didn't move forward or back. It was essentially frozen was it not? Did the jewel work in another way?

She abhorred the idea. She had already given birth to an abomination, and damn her if she gave birth to another. She was not destined to be the portal that unleashed hell.

Kagura endeavored to escape Naraku, only to fail miserably each time. She even asked the Lord of the Western Lands, who caught her eye, to help her but to no avail. The man could care less what anyone's problem was. She had several run ins with him due to Naraku's growing notoriety. Sesshoumaru, from what she heard, was the half-brother of Kikyou's former lover.

She didn't know what attracted her to him, but when the wind would blow his silver hair, she wished that she could run her fingers through them. He was strong, and she knew that if Sesshoumaru really wanted, the demon could take on Naraku.

Naraku was off again, but he made sure that Kikyou and Kaede were heavily guarded. He had Kanna with him to look in on them often. The despicable creature had mentioned recruiting seven mercenaries. The neighboring warlords became aware of Naraku's reputation and wished to be rid of him, and even arrogant demons wish him dead. Kagura didn't understand why Naraku would wish to recruit seven humans when they were no threat to him, but Naraku had a love for manipulation and treachery.

The demoness heard a vase break and knew instantly that it came from Naraku and Kikyou's room. Kagura sighed in exasperation, believing that the woman was more trouble than she was worth. She walked over to the spacious room and pushed aside the curtain—

Blood.

"W-what have you done?" Kagura was shocked.

The woman before her had tears streaming down her face. Who knew that she could still cry after so many years? One would have thought that by then, she would have no more to spare. The blood dripped from her hands.

"I will not," Kikyou gasped for breath, "give him an heir."

Kagura looked taken back, and immediately observed if the woman was going to die. It didn't seem like she was suffering from a severe wound. The room, although, smelled different. The tea had something laced in it….

"Milady, what's going on—" a servant cried, rushing toward her.

"Call Tsubaki immediately!" Kagura ordered the woman, as she caught the woman who just fainted. It would seem that the blood was caused by throwing the vase, and Kagura surmised that it was done in anger not in attempt suicide. It was wise though not to rule the attempt suicide out.

Kagura was tempted to drop the woman down a cliff for causing heartache for her again. Naraku will be furious. She didn't despise the woman, but whenever Naraku became angry when it concerned Kikyou—he was angry with everyone and Kagura was his favorite outlet to vent out his frustrations on.

"Why won't you let me through?" Kaede yelled. "Is Onee-sama all right? What's going on? Whose orders are you obeying because I'm sure that my sister would never—"

"We're under strict orders from the Priestess Tsubaki not to let anyone in." The guards held her off.

"And since when did you take orders from Tsubaki? I only follow my sister—and if I recall, that wench isn't the mistress of this castle!"

"Stop your incessant screaming," Tsubaki snapped as she emerged from the room. She glared that Kaede with annoyance. "If you care for your sister, allow her to rest."

The hairs on Kaede's neck stood, and the young woman knew without a doubt who had just arrived. She turned around and glared at him, "What did you do?" Kaede believed that Tsubaki and Naraku deserved each other, and deserved to burn in the pits of hell.

He merely sneered at her before walking past the guards. The dark priestess followed.

Kaede decided that now was as good as any day, and ran off.

"After her!" the guards cried.

"Leave her be," Kagura interjected. "We can take care of her later."

"What happened?" Naraku inquired as his crimson eyes beheld the lying woman before him. She seemed to be in deep slumber.

"Don't you know?" Tsubaki laughed. "I thought you would have guessed by now. I suppose not. She drank a potion that is meant to kill an unwanted child."

What the woman said held his interest. Kikyou had been pregnant?

"According to your offspring, Kagura, when she found Kikyou—she was bloody and swearing that she would not birth another Naraku."

Kaede wasn't naïve, and she knew that the demons had no intention of letting her go—but she had to try. Surprisingly, it was easy to dodge the human guards. As long as she was able to do what she intended, then she would return herself to Naraku's castle.

Her destination wasn't too far. She noticed that surrounding vicinity was far more deserted than it should be. She supposed that people learned to take another route since they wished to avoid Naraku. She prayed that the gods would be kind and allow her to meet a traveling merchant. The young lady should have learned her lesson by then because of Naraku, but Kaede adamantly believed that no one was worst than him.

Kaede had thought about taking her life to spare Kikyou the burden of worrying about her, but she knew that it could backfire on her. Naraku would ensure that Kikyou was his, and the death of a sister-in-law would not deter him. Kaede considered mercifully ending her sister's life, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Kaede hated herself for being utterly selfish. It was her selfishness and Kikyou's selflessness that had paved way to Naraku making Kikyou his queen. While she may possess the body of a young lady, she was not mentally. Kaede had tried to end her life for the sake of her sister, because without her, Naraku had no bargaining chip. Each time, however, she wondered if the end of her life would suffice, or if it would make things worse for her sister.

"She is not a demon," Tsubaki reminded Naraku, "but she's not as frail as a normal human. If you value this wench, you ought to tread carefully for a few weeks. It's not prudent otherwise." The dark priestess didn't wait for his dismissal and walked out the room.

Naraku crept toward his wife and sat next to her sleeping body. "I should think you would have learn your lesson by now."

Kikyou stirred but did not wake. Naraku knew how the woman before him thought. Since he didn't know about the baby, she would argue that she did nothing wrong. Besides, he imagined her telling him, I thought you didn't want to share me?

"Did she succeed in killing it?"

Tsubaki eyed him before she answered.

Naraku remembered about Kikyou's sister and called for Kagura. "I think it's time that she returned home. After all, she has yet to see her sister."

"I highly doubt that Kikyou wants Kaede to see her in this condition—"

"Kagura," Naraku cut her off in annoyance. "Are you questioning my order?"

"No," Kagura feigned a bow and took her leave. It was best that she retrieved Kaede anyway.

After thanking the kind man (and the gods for answering her prayer), she wasted no time. Kaede realized that things were different since she was last there, and she briefly wondered what her friends looked like now. They surely must have been old, married, and with children and grandchildren.

The leaf she cast her spell on was still in her hand. While her magic was nothing like how her sister's used to be, it should be enough. She dropped the leaf down the well, and pleaded with fervor that the spell worked. Please help us.

The wind whirled behind her, and Kagura called Kaede's name. "I'm here to take you back."

Kaede sighed, "I figured."

"Are you going to tell me what you are up to?"

"Are you going to tell me what happened to Kikyou-oneesama?"

Kagura remained silent, and Kaede figured that she would find out eventually. She walked toward the demon and took her place on the giant feather that was Kagura's transportation.

Please…anyone…. Kaede looked back at the well and the village that was once her home with melancholy eyes.

A/N: Umm yeah….Please review!