Chapter 3

The Crystal

As usual there was no end when it came to walking around the lake. Raikou seemed to know that, but still she continued to walk. The lake's spell had effect on her because she wanted to be here. She had something she needed to do.

The baby she held in her arms woke up and looked up at her with his golden gaze before crying. Raikou just smiled before rocking and hushing the child.

"It's okay," Raikou tried to soothe the child, "it will all be over soon. You're going to pay for everything you've done."

The infant continued to cry. What could Raikou have been talking about? This baby appeared to only be about three months old unable to do much yet it was treated as though it had done something horrible.

"This will do," Raikou smiled as she walked up to the beach area, "I'm sorry but you left me no choice in the matter. Maybe I'll see you in another life."

Now came the horrible part that had been driving Kagome to the point of insanity. Raikou kept a smile on her face as she lowered the baby into water. The water was freezing, but it didn't matter as the child moved its legs and arms struggling for air. The scene became more drawn out before the struggling finally ceased and Raikou laughed as she let go of the body.

"There is nothing I can do," a familiar but yet unexpected voice intervened.

Though Raikou didn't notice, behind her was a little girl that could be recognized easily as Kanna. She stood there, almost lifeless as usual, not caring about the scene before her. She looked to the sky with a blank stare before speaking.

"Naraku this dream cannot be infiltrated. Kagome is too far gone."

Kanna had disappeared as mysteriously as she came into the scene before the mist from the lake began to consume Raikou and the few trees that were in the area. As usual this meant Kagome Higurashi was being forced into the waking world in a cold sweat almost feeling out of breath.

Whenever she was there was a small oil lamp in the corner of the room that allowed her to see her backpack. She grabbed it and without a second's notice there was a pencil in her hand so she could record all of this in her diary.

August 11th- I think

The dream changed again. Raikou still drowned the baby and all that horrible stuff, but this time I heard her speak. I can now confirm that it is her, and she looks insane as she drowns her own baby. She talks about how he will pay for what he did. What did the baby do? Maybe Sesshoumaru did something and this is a way of getting revenge. Sesshoumaru is a cold heartless monster, but what could he possibly do to warrant this?

Kanna would be the major change in the dream. It was like she wasn't suppose to be there at all. She was talking to Naraku even though he wasn't there. Something about how my dream can't be infiltrated and that I'm too far gone. What if none of this is real? Maybe Naraku found a way to do this to me to drive me crazy. I don't even know where I am. Last thing I remember was running through that nasty swamp and then I just didn't feel like it anymore. My life felt useless. I thought I was going to die.

August 12th

I haven't slept since last night. Even if this is some cruel trick of Naraku's. I have to do everything in my power to find out the truth. It feels like my existence revolves around not letting that baby die.

It's obvious by now that I'm in Sesshoumaru's home. Servants have been bringing me food and telling me it's best I stay put. I've been confined in this room all day and even I heard the whole story about Sesshoumaru and Raikou's fight that occurred shortly after I was brought here. She'd been throwing things at him and after he scolded her and asserted his dominance he hid himself somewhere in the castle and was punishing any servant that came across his whereabouts.

Could whatever this fight is about be the thing that forces Raikou to kill her own child?

"Girl," Sesshoumaru growled upon entering the room unannounced, "you will tell me the truth. Lie and I will kill you."

Kagome didn't get a chance to respond as he grabbed her by the neck and forced her into the wall.

"How you did know about the password?" he demanded to know.

It was difficult to catch her breath, "What password?"

He growled as he let go of her, "When we were in the swamp you said Alegris and you knew it was a password."

"I don't remember anything from the swamp," she declared before he could strike again, "I blacked out."

He just turned his back, "I don't have the time to deal with interrogating a human. I've summoned a witch doctor to examine you. Even if you are telling the truth I have to insure you don't leak anymore secrets."

"Is that all?" her voice almost squeaked when he reached the door.

He didn't even turn before replying, "Lady Raikou requests your presence. Fix your appearance. She will meet you in the tea room, and when you are there remember that her need for a meeting with you is the only thing keeping you alive."

It wasn't long after Sesshoumaru's departure that a servant supplied Kagome with a kimono and a hair brush. Why would Raikou want to see her, and how was Kagome to handle herself? It was Raikou who was driving her to the point of insanity. Not to mention last time Kagome was face to face with the wolf demon she almost fired an arrow at her.

Should she make a move now that Sesshoumaru wasn't around to protect Raikou? There was no doubt that she was the murderer in the dream. What could Kagome do though? She was unarmed and very weak compared to the taiyoukai.

Fear of Raikou made Kagome very unaware of her sorroundings. She thought nothing of how complicated putting on a kimono really was. The obi was barely tied therefore hung around her waist loosely. Nothing was really done with her hair as the ebony mess didn't look right with the beautiful pattern of flowers carefully sewn into the silky fabric. Slippers were provided to her, but she preferred to walk down the cold hallways in her barefoot.

"Lady Raikou," the cat demon servant knocked on Sesshoumaru's door, "She's here."

"Thank you Katsu," Raikou's cool voice came from the other side, "bring her in."

The door opened and Kagome wasn't surprised at all that this was Sesshoumaru's bedroom. Of course it had a huge bed and wardrobe that was meant for a lord, but yet it was very bland. Not one picture hung on the walls.

"I know how you feel," Raikou noticed Kagome's wandering eyes, "I don't want to be in here either."

Her eyes went back to the floor, "You needed me?"

The wolf demon chuckled as she opened up her dresser, "You followed me and my mate, and you want to know what I need? You know the only reason your still alive is because you're driving Sesshoumaru insane."

That made the miko feel a little bit better, at least someone else could feel almost as crazy as she did.

"I kinda like it," Raikou laughed, "It's like he only has two faces sometimes. His always either cold and silent or murderous, but now I guess my mate doesn't like it when there is something he can't figure out. Why would you follow us, and now he has to figure out how a human like you can whisper passwords while unconsious.

How nice. The pain and suffering Kagome was currently undergoing was becoming a source of amusement. If only the wolf demon knew that her appearance in horrifying dreams was the cause of all this.

There was something about Raikou though now that they were face to face like this. She didn't seem dangerousor the type who would drown her own child. She was quite normal, which meant there was no reason on this Earth as to why she was with Sesshoumaru.

"I guess my mate has some sense of humor," Raikou's claws were searching through her clothes before she pulled out a tiny black box that had what looked like green vines around it.

The air was awkward with the wolf demon talking to herself, and even though Kagome was left in an odd awkward situation she couldn't stand it anymore.

"What's in there?" she asked, "Sesshoumaru's heart?"

That had been a very odd, very disrespectful, but yet honestly funny thing to randomly blurt out as she did. Raikou chuckled at first before staring at the ceiling and began to laugh out loud. She tossed the box in the air so Kagome could move to catch it, but it fumbled and she had to retrieve it from the ground. Obvisouly something quite precious was locked away in there, and she thought Raikou would be enraged, so it was surprising that she was offered a hand to help her up.

"I thought you were quite annoying at first uh- what's your name again?"

"Kagome," she almost stuttered looking at the box in her hand, "so what is it?'

"My precious jewel that- don't frown. As long as it's in that box it can't break. It can be thrown out the window for all I care. It's worthless right now. Until I provide him with the perfect heir and be the perfect mate he is the only one that knows the password that will unlock it."

Kagome ran her hands across the box a little seeing that there was no way to open it, "Can I ask exactly what it is? I mean, Sesshoumaru is clearly being quite-

"His a cruel self motivated monster of a youkai!"

"Yeah that..." though Raikou clearly wasn't a fan of her mate Kagome knew it wouldn't be wise to speak cruelly of her current host, "so what is in here? It has to be something important if you are, well let's say-

"Sacraficing myself?"

"Yeah that."

Damn. The only way Kagome had viewed Raikou up until now was a murderious crazy demon that found a soul mate in Sesshoumaru. Yet now it felt like she was split into two, because every word that crossed her mind was being vocalized by her new enemy.

"I know everything about the shikon-no-tama and that son-of-a-bitch Naraku- wait does Naraku have a mother?"

Kagome shook her head, "His a combination of demons or something like that."

"Okay maybe I'm not too informed, but I do know that if he knew about this jewel he would change his whole stratgey."

"It's that amazing huh?"

Raikou's voice lowered for a moment. She didn't want any of the servants to hear. For Kagome it was okay, because she was human. If she made any attempt to take the jewel away Raikou could take her out in seconds.

"It allows the user to travel through time," she whispered, "I've been studying it for years and when I found out Sesshoumaru's family was in possession of it I couldn't deny his proposal. Once he gives it to me my life will be complete."

"Wait. Why would he just hand that over? Isn't he afraid that you could use it to make it so you never had to mate with him or anything like that? That you could screw up time?"

It was odd that Kagome was even asking this, after all, she was a time traveler herself and never questioned things like this. This world was crazy with demons and how close Naraku was to destroying everything, but yet her time remained untouched by it all.

"I always thought that when I first began my studies," Raikou smirked glad that she held so much knowledge, "but in this dimenson that isn't how the time flow works. No matter what I did to make it so I don't wind up with Sesshoumaru it would still happen, because in order to obtain this jewel I would to have been with him. The flow of time in this world is amazing because there are factors that make major events fix themselves to never be tampored with. Time is written in stone."

"Well...this might be a little selfish of a question, but if you can't change anything in time why would you want that crystal?"

"I said major events. I can still change little stuff that doesn't affect anyone's life the jewel itself. For example, my hair looked atrioucs when I was forced to have a portait painted. I can change that, but mostly I want to see my mother. She died when I was a cub, and maybe if I could just have a conversation with her..."

It felt as though everything had changed. Kagome had come in here hoping for maybe the perfect oppurtionity to kill of this demon so she would no longer be plagued by these evil dreams, but she enjoyed this. Raikou was pretty nice and had interesting conversations. They talked more about time travel and Sesshoumaru without a worry in their mind not knowing they were being watched.

Even demons with hightened senses like Raikou and Sesshoumaru wouldn't be able to do anything about Naraku's single insect that sat on the window sill.

Naraku looked into Kanna's mirror watching the scene and he smirked, "We will have to take care of this little hinderance, won't we?"

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AN: Wow. I went back to my internet and pokemon addiction ways (oddly enough I belt out more Inuyasha fanfiction when I don't have the internet) but yet I had to update this story, because I have big plans for it that I hope I don't ruin.

Also I need to give a shoutout to Hannah Lasker. She's an rp partner of mine who created Raikou and I must give credit where credit is due.

If you want to stalk- I mean follow me, I have a twitter tamashatoko and I will try to keep you all updated on my progress. That way instead of leaving one review that says 'update now' you can torture me until I do.