S-S: Fuck it. Last chapter. I own InuYasha. *runs from lawyers*

She had failed.

Ichida knew deep down that she had been nothing more than a failure, just someone unable to save the people she cared about. Naraku's quick defeat of her made that apparent. And Ichida hadn't even been able to save Chimaki. Her last seconds of life were filled with naught but regrets and a deep hatred of herself coursing through her. How dare she fail? How dare she let Chimaki die, the one person she swore on her life and on her everything to protect?

And then Ichida breathed again.

She remembered not being able to breath. She remembered dying.

But why was there still a part of her to remember all that if she was dead? Didn't the dead not remember? Or was she a soul or something?

Her fingers moved and she felt her chest gasping for air, her mouth panting, taking in deep gulps of precious, precious air. Her bright green eyes snapped open and she realized that for some reason she lived again.

"Try to steady your breathing," a very familiar voice told her, cool as ever, "You've lost a lot of blood and you need to slow down your heart rate."

Slowly, deliberately, Ichida took lighter breaths of air. When she finally could breathe without gasping, she looked up, "What- I don't understand? Wasn't I dead? And why are you here? I thought you left with Kagura?"

Sesshomaru nodded, and only then did Ichida noticed that he held a sword unsheathed in his hand, "I did. Kagura is waiting at the base of the mountain. I came to see if there was anything that I could do," he glanced toward the mountain top as if looking for something. Ichida slowly felt out two auras on the peak, right where she knew Tsubaki's family compound was. "Apparently I was too late."

Too late? What did too late mean? A person that could resurrect the dead could never be too late. Ichida was about to ask what on earth that meant when one of the auras on the top of the mountain vanished. Not teleportation, moved too fast, left Ichida's range, vanished. Dead vanished. And if Ichida couldn't sense Naraku… "But can't you just bring them back!?" she demanded.

Sesshomaru glared at her from the corner of his eye, "If I could do such a thing don't you think I would have done it already?!" he snapped.

"I don't understand!" Ichida said, trying to think, trying to tell if it was InuYasha or Kagome who still lived and getting more and more depressed as each second went by that her friends were dead, "You… you resurrected me, right? So bring them all back."

"I can't," he said quietly, and Ichida realized that he wasn't angry with her anymore he was sad about something else, "The Tensaiga has limits. I cannot resurrect someone who's body is destroyed. Your friend, the Higure girl and the Yozeme, I can't bring them back. I can tell from what's left of their scents that they are dead, but there are no bodies. And I cannot resurrect the same person twice. Which means…" he turned away from the mountain, "I cannot bring back InuYasha."

"But," he walked towards the dead form of Chimaki, "I can do this."

Metal flashed as he sliced the blade over Chimaki's body, like cutting something invisible that only he could see.

And then Chimaki's bright red eyes sapped open.

She didn't move, she barely even breathed. Her whole body shook, so little that even Ichida's eyes could barely see how hard she was trembling. Chimaki's hand tightened around a twin hand made of only bones that Ichida struggled to realize was all that was left of Suki. When Chimaki finally spoke, it wasn't good, "… nee-san…" she muttered.

Ichida limped towards Chimaki, trying to think of something to say to comfort her, "Chimaki-chan… Suki… she's…" she struggled to make out.

"Dead," Chimaki said in the quiet and almost mystical voice of hers, "Suki-nee-san and Tsubaki-san aren't here anymore," she focused intently on a nonexistent point in the distance, "So were you Ichida-san. But the messengers were cut down, and we were allowed to return. They had nowhere to return to. Suki-nee and Tsubaki-san had to stay behind. On the other side," she suddenly turned to Sesshomaru, "I apologize. Death places limits on tools of resurrection."

And somehow Ichida knew that Chimaki was speaking of the Tensaiga's power to only save someone once and she knew that Chimaki was apologizing for InuYasha. How Chimaki knew though, Ichida was clueless.

No. No. No. No.

Kagome watched, unable to move, unable to think, unable to do anything except watch like the helpless fool that she knew she was.

InuYasha collapsed to the ground.

There was screaming, echoing in Kagome's ears as she tried to hold on to InuYasha only she knew that she was only holding on to a body and not InuYasha because his eyes looked so dead and yet she knew he had been there a second ago, and it took her so long to realize that the pained and tortured screams she heard were her own.

There was so much blood. Blood everywhere. Silver stained red until Kagome can't tell the difference even though she knew she had to.

"InuYasha." She muttered to herself, over and over again in the hope that he would hear his name being called and return to her, even though she knows somewhere inside that logical part of her mind that it is hopeless.

"InuYasha. InuYasha. InuYasha."

Tears rolled down her cheeks and burned her cold skin and fell onto InuYasha's face as she held him close. Something inside her broke into a thousand tiny sharp slivers that dug into her heart and ripped at her soul.

And the Shikon jewel around Kagome's neck glowed.

*f*l*a*s*h*b*a*c*k*

"Listen you!" Kagome yelled to the boy that was pinned to the tree, even though every bit of logic her mind had retained was telling her that a boy pinned to a tree with an arrow could not be talking. "I don't know who this 'Kikyo' is, except that she's not me!"

He didn't seem to believe her, "Do you expect me to believe that I wouldn't know the stench of the girl who-!" he paused as he seemed to realize something, "You-" he leaned closer a little and sniffed her, like the dog that his ears suggested he was, "You're not her."

Finally! "Get it now?" Kagome said forcefully, "My name's Kagome! Ka! Go! Me!"

"You mean…" Kagome felt like crying because it was just such a hard thing to comprehend, "You're giving up?" How could he give up now!? His crazy physco brother had turned into a giant dog, and InuYasha was giving up now? What happened to all of InuYasha's talk, all his rude attitude? How could he give up?

He looked so taken back that Kagome had to wonder if there were real tears falling down her face and if that was the one thing that made InuYasha turn into a melting pot of pity, "Stop that now!" he ordered, panicking a little.

"Y-You said I shouldn't be-" Kagome tried to protest.

"Shut up!" InuYasha yelled, although he wasn't angry at her, "I meant, let me protect you, you hear!?"

Protect her? Kagome knew that she should have given him a rant on woman being independent of men in her modern age and how archaic it was to say that she needed protecting but she just couldn't bring her to say it.

Because whether or not she needed it, InuYasha wanted to protect her. And the wanting was enough.

"You think you can make Kagome your mate!?" InuYasha sputtered angrily at Koga, "You'll die for that!"

It was silly and childish and immature of him, but Kagome felt strangely happy knowing that InuYasha cared enough to defend her like that.

A deep hurt slowly ate away at Kagome's heart. Like poison or acid, so bitter and painful that she thought she could not bear it even if she tried to. But she had to think about it. She had to what she was going to do.

InuYasha still loved Kikyo. He wasn't going to leave her alone, he had said as much to Kagome himself. If InuYasha loved Kikyo, then there really was no place for Kagome back in that time. She had no reason to return there anymore. Kikyo was a better priestess than she was, Kikyo could take her spot to hunt down Naraku, all Kagome had to do was return the Shikon shards to her and then Kagome could live her normal boring life without interruptions. There was no longer a place for her in the feudal era. There was no place for Kagome in InuYasha's heart. And it was the last of those realizations that hurt Kagome the most.

But if Kagome returned the jewel shards to InuYasha, she would never be able to see him again.

She knew it was selfish and despicable, but she didn't think she could do that.

Whatever the reasons there were for the two of them to meet, they had met. There was no changing that now. Kagome could not pretend it had not happened and return to a normal life. Kikyo or not, a part of Kagome's heart rested in the feudal era now.

Kagome placed her hand on the smooth and yet rough wood of the Goshinboku and wondered for a moment why she had been fated to meet InuYasha in that exact same spot, five hundred years ago. Her heart hurt so much. If it was so painful, if knowing InuYasha was so painful, then would it not be for the best if they had never met at all?

But she couldn't help it.

She wanted to see InuYasha. Even just one last time, she just wanted to see him.

Her vision blurred and she knew that she was crying. Somehow, without her really knowing, she had fallen in love with InuYasha so deeply that she had left her heart with him.

It was a cool summer's night as InuYasha and Kagome stayed up late. Miroku and Sango had fallen asleep an hour ago and Shippo had been practically dead since he crawled into his nest of blankets. Kagome tucked her knees closer to her body and tried to scoot closer towards the fire without InuYasha noticing and demanding to know if she was too cold or not.

"Hey InuYasha?" she asked, thinking about the tiny sliver of jewel she had in a bottle and the huge chunk Naraku had in his possession, "When we complete the Shikon jewel… do you still want to use it to become all demon?"

He stayed silent for a long time, and she knew that he was also thinking about the many times when his demonic blood had taken control and he had become like an animal. That had been his goal from the very beginning, and the two of them knew that. But they both also knew that things had changed, between them, and between InuYasha and his more demonic side. And Kagome knew deep in her heart that if InuYasha still wanted to be all demon when they got the jewel back, that she would grant his wish.

"I don't know," he finally answered, sounding not like a powerful half demon, or even like any sort of demon at all. He sounded like a lost child that was just too confused to tell. "I really don't know Kagome."

"InuYasha," Kagome said quietly as she held his clawed hand, "I know that you're sad about Kikyo's death. I'm really sorry,"

InuYasha's hand tightened around hers and Kagome leaned against his shoulder.

"But it doesn't change what I said to you. I'm going to stay by your side."

InuYasha's arm wrapped around her and she pressed her mouth against his, trying to tell him that she really truly loved him.

And InuYasha kissed her back.

And then Kagome stood in a cloud of dark miasma and all she could see was silver.

Silver and blood.

And her heart shattered.

*f*l*a*s*h*b*a*c*k*

Kagome felt like screaming.

Her head hurt. Her heart hurt. So much pain that she wanted to die from how much it hurt and how much it felt as though she was being ripped apart when in reality she was being put back together. The voices in her head screamed until they vanished and she knew that they had returned to her mind as memories.

She remembered.

She remembered everything.

InuYasha died in her head a thousand times before her stunned eyes and she tried to tell herself that it wasn't real but she knew it was because she could feel the life leaving his bloodied body that she held in her frail arms.

It was like a heavy pit had been ripped open in her heart and she knew that she could never feel light or happy again. InuYasha was dead.

She leaned her head over his and kissed him on his bloodied lips. "I love you…" she murmured softly, hoping with everything in her that InuYasha would wake up and be all right, "I love you InuYasha. I always have. I always will. Forever. I love you…"

"How sweet."

NARAKU!

Kagome felt rage burn like a wildfire inside her, so much hate she could do nothing more with it except unleash it and destroy. Her body shook from sorrow and rage and she heard Naraku take slow proud steps towards her.

Her head didn't move, but she saw Naraku approach from her peripheral vision. Saw him raise that diamond blade. Her vision turned red, red like InuYasha's blood.

"You are pathetic," Naraku sneered, taking careful measured steps closer to Kagome even though she felt like he couldn't attack her soon enough, "Always relying on InuYasha to save you. Well," he chuckled, "He did. And look at how weak you really are. You can't even move from fear."

His footsteps stopped and Kagome knew that he was right next to her. Right next to InuYasha. Her hands became fists and her fingers were dripping with InuYasha's blood. He would pay. Naraku would pay. She would kill him if it was the last thing she ever did.

Naraku raised his blade, like an executioner perfectly poised to drop the blade and take Kagome's head.

She would kill him.

He killed InuYasha.

Kagome screamed, her bloody hands grabbing the handle of the Tetsusaiga as the blade glowed and transformed, thinking InuYasha was wielding it.

In a flash, she stabbed Naraku through the chest.

Naraku reached for the Shikon Jewel around her neck.

The jewel glowed.

And then everything went white.

After an eternity that spanned a second, Kagome opened her eyes.

She was surrounded by darkness, but it wasn't miasma. It was like her dreams.

Where was she? She wasn't asleep. Could she be dead? The thought did not scare her, and she even felt as though she would welcome the feeling. Because InuYasha was dead too.

A figure stepped out of the darkness.

It was a woman, dressed in the traditional red and white garb of a miko with the armor of a samurai over her. She carried a sword at her hip and her long dark hair fell down her back in a perfect sheet. Her brown eyes smiled at Kagome with a deep kindness, "Hello my dear," she said, and for a moment Kagome could have sworn that the woman was her own mother, even though such a thing wasn't true.

"Who are you?" Kagome asked, looking around and thinking that she knew the woman, "Where am I? What happened to Naraku? To InuYasha?"

The woman's smile did not vanish, "I think that you can answer all those questions on your own, Kagome," and then she pointed a slender dainty finger at Kagome's neck.

Kagome reached to her neck but found no comfort in the Shikon jewel. Wherever she was, the jewel had not come with her and for a fleeting moment of panic she thought that Naraku had it, and then she remembered where she thought she had seen the woman before and she knew the answers. "Hello Midoriko."

Midoriko beamed at her, "It is good to finally speak with you Kagome," she clasped her hands together like a school teacher, "Now, can you figure out where you are and what happened?" It was like a riddle with her, and she expected Kagome to be clever enough to figure it out.

Watching the smile on her face and looking all around her, Kagome finally said, "I think… that we're inside the jewel."

Proud, Midoriko nodded slowly and motioned for her to continue, "And how would you have ended up inside the jewel?" she prompted.

Kagome had no idea. "I don't know."

"Think. How did the jewel get formed?" Midoriko's eyes gleamed as she tied to get Kagome to figure out the riddle.

Reciting what she knew from memory, Kagome said, "You absorbed the energy of a great demon into yourself and then expelled that energy-" understanding came to her, "You mean I sucked Naraku's energy and my energy into the jewel? But I can't do something like that!"

Midoriko sighed, "Ah Kagome. You can. You did. And now you and Naraku are inside the jewel, although he is not here and is elsewhere in the great and non-ending abyss that is the Shikon-jewel."

"I thought-" Kagome almost didn't ask because it seemed like a silly question, "I thought this place was filled with all the souls of the demons you fought. Where are they? Shouldn't we have to be fighting?"

Midoriko's laugh was like a bell chime, "Oh Kagome, you miss the obvious. Your mind has one of the strongest mental barriers I have ever seen. We are, in a sense, still inside your mind, despite being inside the Shikon jewel. Once you remove the barrier, the demons will swarm, yes."

"And-" Kagome tried to ask without thinking because thinking hurt too much, "And InuYasha?"

There was no reply.

"I see." Kagome whispered.

"Death can be a difficult thing to accept," Midoriko said softly, "And I know that it can't be easy for you to think of anything but getting your revenge."

"Stop patronizing me," Kagome bit out, "I can think perfectly clear. Naraku will die. That's all that matters."

Midoriko nodded, "I know. And you're right. If he is not stopped then the whole world will fall. However, we have the advantage. You trapped Naraku's soul inside the jewel. For the moment he is stopped. But…"

"If the jewel is not destroyed, then Naraku or no Naraku, someone else will come along and take the jewel and another Naraku will be created," Kagome finished, coming to the inevitable realization, "The jewel needs to be destroyed, doesn't it?"

"Yes," she confirmed, "I have been hoping for a very long time that you would succeed."

"Succeed at what?" Kagome asked, because it seemed like such a strange thing to desire.

"Why at destroying the jewel of course," Midorki answered as if it was obvious.

That only served to confuse Kagome further, "But if we destroy the jewel, won't you die?"

"Kagome," Midoriko countered, "If we destroy the jewel, you will die as well. Your body, Naraku's body, and even what is left of InuYasha, all will be caught in the likely blast. I have been ready to die for hundreds of years. It is you I would be worried about."

"I don't care," Kagome said. "If it will save the world, I'll do anything."

Midoriko looked at Kagome and then it seemed as though she looked deeper into Kagome than was possible, "You are very brave."

Kagome shook her head, "Brave doesn't matter. I just have to destroy the jewel. If I destroy the jewel, then I destroy Naraku right? But I don't… I don't know how to destroy the jewel," It was a puzzle bigger than anything she had ever solved, and from the look in Midoriko's face, it seemed as though the older woman had no ideas either, "If I hadn't made a wish to forget," Kagome began, listing off possibilities, "Then I could have wished for it to vanish. But I can't do that obviously. The jewel can't be destroyed from the outside, so we can destroy it from the inside."

"But the jewel is made of demonic energy and miko energy," Midoriko acknowledged, "If we attempt to attack it, our attacks will prove useless."

Demonic and miko energy.

That was it.

"The jewel," Kagome said, almost as a gasp because she could see an answer in sight, "The jewel is made of demonic and spiritual energies. But the two are in constant opposition, that's how the jewel can be purified and defiled, based on the intentions of the user. It doesn't matter how foul or how pure the jewel gets, it won't be destroyed. The two forces are always in opposition, and opposites will always fight."

Midoriko frowned, "Yes, that's why I have been in a constant battle with the demons in the jewel. But Kagome, even when the whole jewel has been purified, I have not stopped fighting them."

Kagome nodded, thinking faster than ever, "Yes! That's it. In order to destroy the jewel, the battle has to stop. You can't have the jewel in an extreme, neither extremely pure or extremely foul. The two forces inside the jewel have to be negated. It's like chemistry. A powerful acid and a powerful base can be combined to form water. You just have to combine the demonic energy and the miko energy in the jewel and then both forces will be negated. The jewel would cease to exist without the energies inside it!"

"That's brilliant!" Midoriko exclaimed, and then her face fell, "But impossible. If I lay down arms, then the demons will win and the jewel will turn foul. And there is no way for the demons to give up. We would need something in the middle, a force that could turn the energies together."

"I know," Kagome said, "I can break down the barrier of my mind. The demons will attack you and you will attack them. In the middle will be me. I'll take both the energies into my mind and negate them."

Midoriko paused, "But you will die."

"I know," she repeated, "As I said before, it doesn't matter whether I live or die."

The older priestess did not seem to fully understand, "But Kagome, you are still young. There is a whole life ahead of you. If you leave the jewel, surely we can find another way."

"There is no other way," Kagome countered, speaking from her heart and soul and telling the entire truth, "Midoriko, my friends are dead. My friends from the feudal era died in front of me and my friends from this era were killed the same way, each time victims of Naraku. The man I loved with all my heart died to save me. I will not stop until I kill Naraku, not just out of vengeance, but because there is nothing left for me to go back to."

Midoriko stepped backwards and drew her sword, "Then do it."

"Ready?" Kagome reached her hand out and grabbed a fistful of the darkness.

She nodded, "I always am."

And Kagome ripped away the darkness of her mind.

There was a roar of demons and the hordes swarmed towards Midoriko. Midoriko raised her sword and rushed towards the demons, prepared to continue the violent and pointless battle that she had been living for hundreds of years.

But Kagome was in the middle.

With her mind, with her energy, she let the demons and Midoriko clash around her and then she grasped onto their energies. She pulled the power into her mind and into her body, feeling the raw power of it, feeling the energies swirl around inside her and fight and clash.

And then Kagome pulled out her own energy and used it to merge the two.

Part of her mind vaguely remembered the bright explosion of light when she had erased her memories and she recalled the explosion Midoriko had warned her about. This feeling was like nothing she had ever felt before. She could feel the pool of energies inside her grow to encompass the whole jewel and she could feel that if she made the slightest mistake it would all be ruined. So she didn't make a mistake. She just kept combining the energies.

And then there was the sensation of being ripped apart as the energies became neutral.

Neither a pure feeling no a foul one.

Just an intense feeling.

Her body became energy, and that became light, which was Kagome and not Kagome and the light was everything.

And then Kagome smiled.

Before her very eyes, she and the jewel ended.

Chimaki had stayed on the mountain, and Ichida had stayed with her. She hadn't known why the frailer girl had stayed, but she had had stayed as well because Chimaki was important. And then while Ichida was watching where Chimaki was watching, she knew why Chimaki had stayed.

A beautiful light exploded from the mountain top.

Something white and bright, so bright that it could have blinded her. There were no energies coming from that mountain anymore, Ichida could not sense Kagome or InuYasha. She could only sense a great energy that grew as the light grew and faded as the light faded.

Chimaki smiled as the white light reflected in her red unblinking eyes, "Everything is so simple now," she said calmly, "A wish was granted. Everything became so much easier at the end."

"It is such a beautiful light," Ichida said quietly.

"It is," Chimaki agreed, "A beautiful white light. But…

"Kagome would have called it silver."

S-S: The end is finally here! I hope you guys all enjoyed reading Silver as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have any questions about anything please don't hesitate to ask, there are no more spoilers to guess and no more plot twists for me to give away. If anyone saw this ending coming (freaking mindreaders…), then give yourself a pat on the back!

You've been a great crowd!