Disclaimr: Ooops, I kinda forgot to do this in the last chapter.  Guess what?  The status on my owning Inuyasha hasn't changed since the last five %+*^ disclaimers!

Somnium et Umbra: Dream and Shadow

Epilogue: No Endings

            He pillowed her head on his arm, watching her as she slept, her deep, even breathing signaling that it was over.  All the terror and torment had been a lie, and the truth was cradled in his protective embrace.

            'I won't lose you,' he promised her, 'I will never let my fears come between us, ever again.'

            Almost as if she heard him, Kagome smiled slightly and snuggled closer into Inuyasha's chest, her warm breath caressing the bare skin at his throat.

            Pleasantly surprised but not at all adverse to her unconscious invitation, Inuyasha pulled her even closer, rolling slightly onto his back so that she would lie more comfortably against him.  He yawned, surprised that he could be so tired after having been unconscious for nearly an entire day.

            'Just a little nap.  I'll wake up in a little while and find out what exactly went on.  But right now…this feels very…nice…'

            Kagome's eyes drifted open.  She was not at all surprised when the first thing she saw was Inuyasha's peacefully sleeping face.  She smiled when she noticed how his arms held her to him, encompassing her in a sure, gentle embrace.  His warmth comforted her, surrounding her as a physical reaffirmation of his love.  "Sleep just a while longer," she whispered to him, "I'll be back soon."

            Regretfully, she carefully withdrew herself from his side, watching his face to make certain he would not suddenly awaken.  Exhaustion lent her its services, however, and Inuyasha continued to sleep soundly as she searched for and found her coat.  She hesitated for a moment at the door before she departed, tracing her eyes fondly over his features.

            "I will be back soon," she promised again, and stepped out of the hut.

            The light snow from the day before had added a fresh layer to the already calf-high drifts that blanketed everything as far as her eyes could see.  Kagome rubbed the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes, wondering what time it was.

            "How are you feeling, Kagome-chan?" Sango asked, coming up the road from the village.  Her eyes flitted anxiously over her friend's face, and Sango was relieved to see nothing of the fear and strain or of the shadows that had almost claimed her.

            Kagome smiled brightly.  "Don't worry, Sango," she said, "There's nothing wrong.  In fact, I don't think I've felt this good in…well, ever."

            Sango responded with a smile of her own and a wry chuckle.  "Trust you to face the power of Hell and come out smiling," she said, "And Inuyasha?  Is he…?"
            "He's asleep," said Kagome, "He's so cute when he sleeps.  I almost didn't want to get up, but I think it would have embarrassed him if he woke up to find me staring at him."

            "Perhaps," Sango said, "but why…?"

            "Kagome-sama!" Miroku called, coming up behind Sango.

            "Kagome!" Shippo trilled, jumping from the monk's shoulder into Kagome's open arms.  He snuggled into her embrace and stared up at her with inquisitive blue eyes.  "Why are you awake?  Kaede said you'd be asleep for a really long time 'cuz the spell would have taken a lot out of you."

            "Well, I feel fine," Kagome told him.

            "That is welcome news," Miroku said, "Kaede-sama is down in the village now, tending to one of the village children who's come down with a slight fever, but she said that we were all to let you an Inuyasha sleep as long as possible."

            "How long have I been asleep?" Kagome wondered aloud.

            "It's been an entire day since you first came back," Sango answered her, "You've slept a night and almost half the day."

            "Really?" Kagome said.

            "So, what was it like?" Shippo inquired with childish innocence.  Kagome glanced down at him, startled.  Sango and Miroku winced slightly, but Shippo did not notice.

            "Scary," Kagome answered truthfully, "I don't think I've ever been more afraid in my life."

            "But perhaps Kagome-sama can leave the rest of the details until after she has something to eat," Miroku hinted, fixing Shippo with a pointed stare when the kitsune opened his mouth to protest.

            "I'm not really hungry right now, but thank you all the same," Kagome said, "I think I'll go for a bit of a walk and...anyway, do you think you guys could stay with him until I get back?"

            "Of course we will," agreed Sango, "but are you sure you want to be walking out alone?"

            "I agree with Sango," said Miroku, "At least one of us should accompany you."

            "I appreciate your concern, guys," Kagome said lightly, but her tone brooked no argument, "but I think some time alone to think will be best for me."

            "Aw," Shippo whined, but he had enough sense to not employ doe-eyes to coerce Kagome into taking him along.  Kagome set him down on the ground and straightened.

            "I won't be gone long," she said to her friends, "Just in case Inuyasha wakes up, tell him not to worry."

            They nodded their assent and entered the hut, quietly stationing themselves for the vigil.

            "Where do you suppose she's going?" Sango asked Miroku sotto voce as she knelt beside the hut's fireplace to stoke the lowering flames.

            "She does need time to reflect over what happened, some solitude to search her soul," Miroku replied off-handedly as he examined the wood pile.

            Sango peered at him.  "You have no idea, do you?" she said rather than asked.

            Miroku sighed and shrugged.  "I am just a humble monk," he professed, and handed Sango several small logs to add to the fire.

            *SMACK!!*

           "What, you didn't think she would be able to hit you if her arms full of wood?" Shippo asked somewhat sarcastically, while Miroku made an involuntary examination of the dirt floor, "Why don't you just give her her boomerang and have her put you out of your misery?"

            Even in her jacket, the cold bite of the winter day made her shiver, and Kagome hugged herself to keep warm.  She walked to the far side of the clearing and back, and then decided to remain by the well.

            'Where is she?' Kagome wondered, somewhat peeved that the sender of the summons that had dragged her out of contented sleep and Inuyasha's arms had not had to politeness to be waiting at the appointed place.  She sat down on the edge of the well and stared about, not wanting to be caught off guard when Kikyou showed up.  'If she shows up…'

            "Tell me what happened."

            "Ack!" Kagome yelped, almost falling off her perch.  Heat flushing her cheeks scarlet despite the cold, Kagome recovered as smoothly as she could and faced Kikyou.

"What do you want to know?"

            Kikyou replied, "I want to know what you saw."

            "Why?" Kagome asked, somewhat puzzled.  Kikyou almost seemed…concerned.

            "I was the one who helped you save Inuyasha," Kikyou bit out, "It's my right."

            'Only because you were too afraid to do it yourself,' Kagome managed to not say.  "I could see everything…feel everything," she said aloud, "every nightmare he has ever had, every sin he committed or even thought about, every cruel memory, all his despair, anger, hatred, loneliness…"  She trailed off as the words recalled her own terror and the lash of evil that had torn at her very soul.  "It was as though he had no memory of ever being held or loved."

            "Loved?" Kikyou echoed.  Kagome blinked and focused her attention on the miko.  Kikyou's voice had been soft, pained…regretful.  "I loved him," she continued, as if she could not feel Kagome's stare, "I remember it all, everything I dared not tell him, show him because my vows prevented me…even now I remember.  But I cannot…"

            "Kikyou?" Kagome asked hesitantly.

            "Was I a part of his nightmare?" Kikyou demanded, stoic serenity descending once more like a mask.

            "Yes," Kagome answered, "You killed him…"

            "A memory of that day, when we were betrayed by Naraku," Kikyou stated, rather than asked.  Kagome bit her lip, the hateful taunting of Kikyou's voice echoing in her ears and Inuyasha's berserk rage springing unbidden to the fore of her thoughts.  "Wasn't it?" Kikyou added as an afterthought.

            "Um…"

            "Whatever happened, I want to know," Kikyou said, "If Inuyasha could let himself be saved from willful destruction by you alone and not by me, then there must be a reason.  I want to know why."

            "You killed him…so you could give the Shikon no Tama to Naraku," Kagome said lowly.  'Just like the time you almost killed me and gave that huge shard to him…and I couldn't tell Inuyasha that you were trying to kill me, although he could see it with his own eyes.'

            "He believes that I would…?" Kikyou asked in clear disbelief, her distant façade disintegrating.  Her fists clenched, harder and harder till Kagome wondered that the miko was not bleeding.  'But, then, she has no blood,' she had to tell herself.  Kikyou's eyes were dark with torment as she struggled to regain control.  Kagome stepped forward, her hands out to touch the miko, to reassure her, though Kagome had no earthly idea how.  "Stay away from me!" Kikyou burst out in a scream that was more than half a sob.  She leveled an open hand at Kagome, her eyes shining with tears that could never again be shed by dead eyes.  "I saw how you changed him," she spat, no vestige of a corpse beyond human emotion left in her, only the pain of a soul wounded by hatred and despair, "I should have been the one to change him, I should have been the one to save him!  Why did you have to come?!  Why couldn't I…why didn't I…!?"

            'RUN!  RUN, YOU IDIOT, BEFORE SHE BLASTS YOU TO HELL OR WHATEVER PLACE SHE FANCIES SENDING RIVALS!  GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!' Kagome's mind screamed at her as she saw the crackling ball of blue energy gathering in Kikyou's outstretched hand.  It made excellent sense, perfect sense, in fact; only, Kagome could understand oh so well the confusion and heartache that was rioting in Kikyou's soul.  To have so loved Inuyasha that she would die for him…Kagome sympathized.

            "Kikyou, I'm sorry," Kagome said, though her heart hammered in her throat, "I love him.  I was willing to make the same sacrifice as you, if that meant he could go on living.  For the longest time, I thought that he could only love you, and I envied you.  But I was willing to let him choose.  Inuyasha has a good heart, and he would never wish to harm you; he still lives in agony every day for his hatred of you.  I want to help him live each day, help him to get through the pain, to find whatever happiness that he's looking for.  I don't want him to be consumed by hatred, or regret, or a desire for vengeance.  Please, I only want to be allowed to love him."

            Kikyou's eyes narrowed and the barest hint of a snarl curled her lip.  "How noble," she whispered, and released the spell.

            "Kagome!  Kagome, where are you?!" Inuyasha called, running through the forest, following her tracks toward the well.  'Why in the name of the seven hells did she leave?!'  Sango, Miroku, and Shippo had done their best to detain them, but once Shippo had blurted out that Kagome had gone out for a walk, alone, they might as well tried holding back a typhoon with a paper screen.  'When is she going to learn?!'  "Kagome!"

            "Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled back.  His sharp ears locked onto the sound of her voice, half-terrified and desperate for help.  Inuyasha cut down the trees in his way with a slash of his claws, turning the old pines into matchwood.  He saw Kagome slumped beside the well, huddling over herself as though she were wounded.

            "It's Kikyou!  She…!" Kagome managed.

            'NO!' Inuyasha's mind screamed.  Kikyou had been present at his awakening, but he dared not speak to her then; the memory of her betrayal and his claws shattering her fragile body, no matter how false it had been, was too fresh in his mind for him to even meet her eyes.  Had she come back and hurt Kagome because…?

            "…it was right behind me," Kagome was sobbing, "I didn't see it because I thought she was going to…oh God, Inuyasha, I didn't know!  She…she…"

            "Where is she!?" Inuyasha demanded, running up beside Kagome to take her into his arms.  He could smell none of her blood, and he prayed that he had come in time to prevent nay harm to her.  But what was this babbling about?  And why did the stench of blasted you-ki and spiritual power pervade the very air of the clearing?  "What did she do to you?"

            "W-what?" Kagome asked, raising her tear-streaked face to stare at him with uncomprehending eyes. "Inuyasha, can't you see?"  Kagome shifted, so that Inuyasha could see the oh-so-familiar body that was cradled in her lap.  Kikyou stared up at him, pain evident in her eyes, but there was none of the hatred that he had come to know from her.  There were no marks upon her body, but if she was wounded, no blood would have flowed anyway.

            "Kikyou?" Inuyasha breathed.  'What's going on here?'

            "Inuyasha…" Kikyou's whisper was soft and somewhat resigned, "I allowed unwilling vows to keep myself from ever showing you the love I truly felt for you in my first life.  Hatred and vengeance has kept from you in this one.  I…lost you to this girl when I demanded your death.  I can see that now."

            "Don't talk," Kagome pleaded, "Kikyou, if you keep talking, you're not going to…"

            "To live?" Kikyou finished hollowly, "I've died under worse circumstances.  But I will not die today.  I will fulfill my purpose of revenge and return to Death peacefully."

            "If you hadn't seen that youkai," Kagome whispered, "If you hadn't left yourself open, I would have died and…"

            "And Inuyasha would never have forgiven me," Kikyou said, "Isn't that right, Inuyasha?"

            "I…" Inuyasha managed, completely confused at this point.  There had been danger, Kagome had almost died, he had not been there, and Kikyou had saved Kagome?

            "When the two flames became one, I knew that your bond went deeper than anything I…we had ever experienced.  We might have, if I had been allowed to, but that is the burden of the dead, I suppose," Kikyou said half to herself, "Regret is all I have left…except to avenge what happened to us at the hands of Naraku."  Slowly, the miko raised herself up, coldly brushing away Kagome's fumbling attempts to help her.  Pain that was not merely physical was etched into her face as she gazed down at Kagome.  "You had better keep to your words, girl; I would say they were too pretty for the likes of you if you had not done what you did yesterday," she said.  "And you," she turned to Inuyasha, "find this happiness that is worth living your life for.  Naraku's latest attack will not go unanswered by me, but your fight is going to continue until he is dead.  I will be waiting for you at the end of this."  She raised her hand to the grey sky and almost immediately, the serpentine wraiths, her soul-stealers, came down to her, wending about their lady to bear her aloft into the sky before the stunned girl and hanyou could say aught to her.

            'I will see you at the end of all this,' Kikyou's final words came to Kagome.

            'Yes.  The end is far away, though,' Kagome replied.  "Inuyasha?" Kagome called gently, touching his hand.  He looked down at her, confusion still apparent in his eyes.  She clung to him as he helped her to his feet and silenced his question with a kiss.  "I can explain everything to you, because now there is nothing that will ever prevent us from being free to love each other."

            "Just don't disappear like that again," Inuyasha replied, his eyes softening as relief flooded through him.  'I can trust my life to you.  I don't ever want to lose you.'

            "I promise," said Kagome, closing her eyes as he skimmed his lips over her cheeks, molding her body to his as he claimed her mouth in a kiss that banished all thoughts of fear and doubt.  'I will live my life with you, my love.  The end is always far away when you are with me…'

*~ OWARI ~*

Narrator here.  Yay, I finished it!  Woot! *does little Happy-Hamster Dance of Victory*  Thank you to everyone who stuck through this and let me finish.  Technically, the story ended last chapter, but I just had to resolve the thing with Kikyou.  As a tragic figure, she is all right, but when you get down to it, she is a very difficult person to like.  Yeah, there is that hang up that she is dead because of a plot that made her hate her one love in life, but geez…lighten up and get revenge, honey!  And do not go tormenting your poor former-pookie while you are it.  It was mainly because she kept insisting that her past love with Inuyasha entitled her to death with him that rather pissed me off, because if you truly love someone, you ought to be happy that they live on with the memory of your love untainted by hatred and regret.  I know Kikyou might seem a little (a lot) OOC in this epilogue, but hey, she cannot always be the frigid bitch if she still has love for Inuyasha.  Heck, she is fighting Naraku and she does get pissed every once in a while.  I had to make her a little human or I would have ended up hating her.

Whew, okay, rant is over.  I should thank all of my marvelous reviewers right now:

Chibi-Washu: Thank you very much! *bows*

Kelly-chan: Yeah, like I said in the rant, I do not necessarily hate her, I just do not particularly like her.  And is rather too easy to villainize those we do not like.  Oh, favorite fic?  I am honored! (Kanashimi: Oh great, you just had to go and feed her ego, didn't you?)  I cannot wait for the next chapter of "Sailor Bish"!

C. M. Forde: Right.  *hides her bag of carrots* Get more sleep, dang it, you are weird enough on a regular basis as it is!

Ithilwen: To be honest, your review is what convinced me to get off my ass and really tie up the loose ends with Kikyou.  Argh, why could you not have just let me be lazy?!  Hopefully, this end justifies all the waiting.  If not…then you can have Kanashimi's whip.  Just give me a five-second head start…

respectedspirit: Aw, do not cry!  See, it all works out in the end!

Pogo: And here is the epilogue!  I really wanted to end it at the last chapter but some people just would not let it go *erhem!*

Az:  But I like it when Inuyasha smiles!  He needs to do more of it!  Am I right, people, am I right?  I agree that Kagome is very good about acknowledging her weaknesses, which is why I like her more than Kikyou when you get down to it.  She is a very real character, which was why she was a lot easier to write about than Inuyasha and Kikyou (she is remarkably saner than both of them).  And yeah, I was worried about the WAFF, seeing as how I do not like writing it, for the most part.  But darn it, there are just times when you have to go in and give things a little prod.  *hides cattle prod behind her back*  Heh heh…

C-chan: Please, I know it is late, but try not to be too upset with me.  I only hope this epilogue makes up for all the waiting.

Rika: Thank you!  Normally, I figure I/K scenes involve Inuyasha being embarrassed about his growing feelings and acting like an ass to cover for it, while Kagome suffers like a saint, so it was more fun when he stopped being an idiot for once.  *thwacks Inuyasha with her bokken (a.k.a., Japanese Shillelagh)*

Inuyasha: Dammit, Narrator, what the hell was that for?!

Narrator: *twitch* If you need to be told, I obviously did not hit you hard enough.  *raises bokken*

Kagome: Calm down you two!  Inuyasha, just let it go.  She didn't kill us, we got to kiss and…stuff, and she's going off to field training in two weeks, so she won't be able to torture us for a whole month!

Inuyasha: Oh yeah.  Ha ha, sucks to be you, Narrator!

Narrator: Just you wait, inu-kuro!  All the screaming FTOs, MTIs, and CTAs in the world cannot stop me from my quest to spread insanity throughout the fanfiction world!  I will return triumphant, and you will tremble at the scenarios I will have dreamt up for you! *froths at the mouth*

Inuyasha: o_O

Kagome: If I send you cookies, will you leave us alone?

Narrator: I am not allowed to have cookies.

Kagome: How about candy?

Narrator: Can't have that either.

Kagome: *getting desperate* How about we kidnap Kouga and Fed-Ex him to you?

Narrator: Honey-child, you got yourself a deal!  *glomps Kagome, then Inuyasha for good measure, then goes into Kouga-fangirl dreamland* Oh, Kouga-sama!  *^.^*

Inuyasha: *sweatdrop*How far away is "Ellsworth" again?

Kagome: *figuring stuff out on a calculator* Enough that you're going to have to get a part-time job at WacDonald's to help pay for the postage.  Now, get a move on before she recovers!  *shoves a protesting Inuyasha out of Narrator's Authorspace*

Salute!  See you in June, when I get back from the fun that is ROTC field training!