The group awoke to find two members missing. Sango brought her hands to her mouth in a silent scream.

"She must have fallen asleep." Miroku blankly stated the fear that crept through Sango’s mind.

"Where could they have gone?" Sango’s question was answered by a loud dull roar.

"It has begun." Stated Kaede. Shippou looked to her with concern.

"What has begun?"

"The beginning. Of the end." Sango looked to her, and her mouth opened wide.

"You don’t mean that the legend is true." Kaede shook her head.

"Not a legend, a prophecy."

***

During the night, Inu Yasha had taken Kagome back to the cave. He roughly placed her on the ground of the mold-lit chamber. He grabbed each of her arms and pinned them to each side of her body and took her in a forceful kiss. Though it was hard to resist, she struggled, knowing that he was no longer in control of himself. When she attempted to pull away he pushed her against a wall. When he tried to slide his tongue into her mouth, she bit it. This caused him to scream in both pain and fury.

"Inu Yasha!" She yelled. "You need to get control over yourself!" He placed his arms on the wall, trapping her in front of him. He loomed over her as if to strike, but instead his eyes flashed for a moment.

      "Help me." He rasped, then ran out of the cave. She was about to follow when she heard the noise. It was similar to the sound of Miroku’s air rip, only a thousand times louder.

***

"Of which prophecy do you speak?" Miroku had heard many, but none involving a shard sucking demon.

"Well, I think I can answer that." Sango said. "As you know, the Shikon No Tama was created in my village, but long before that even occurred, a psychic of sorts had visited the elder of our village in order to give a warning. Now mind you, it has been passed down through many generations, even before Midoriko’s time. The story goes that the psychic told the elder that one day a jewel of great power would come from a pure maiden’s soul, and in the hands of a demon destroy all living things. That was the basic idea."

"It was a bit more involved when I heard it, but that is basically right." Miroku and Shippou looked to each other, then shouted at the same time.

"Why didn’t you mention this before?" Sango looked a little embarrassed.

"Well, ever since the jewel creation, my people swore to keep it out of demon hands. That’s why we became demon hunters, but when I found out Inu Yasha was merely half-demon, I saw no cause for alarm." She mentally smacked herself for being so thoughtless. The roar seemed to be getting louder. "We don’t have time to argue this now. We have to stop him."

"Did the prophecy mention a solution?" Miroku was always one to plan ahead.

"I don’t remember, what about you Kaede?" She looked to the elderly priestess.

"Aye, I remember. The demon can only be stopped by a searching of the soul. Though I know not what that means." They all looked at each other in despair, but gasped when Miroku began to slide across the floor.

"What’s going on?" Sango asked.

"It appears that my shards are being attracted to wherever Inu Yasha is." He was bracing himself on the doorframe at this point. "Might I suggest we use it to find him, while we still can?" They all followed Miroku, as he was pulled by his shards to a scene in which they had no clue how to save their friends.

***

Kagome clung to the wall as she felt her piece of the jewel being pulled towards the entrance of the cave. Her fingers drug along the cool stone picking up some of the glowing substance. The buildup that it caused was slick and made it harder for her to grip. She turned as she heard Inu Yasha’s agonizing scream over the sound of rushing wind. Bracing herself a bit she allowed the shard to take her to the edge of the cave. The sight before her was a strange one. Inu Yasha was there, the pain written clearly on his face, but it was as if an enormous black void had opened in his torso. She gasped when she noticed that it was still growing.

Even with all of the wind coming from the hole, no debris seemed to get brought in. The only thing Kagome saw were millions of shards floating in a tornado motion around and into the hole. She looked down at the bit of jewel around her neck.

"I never knew that there were so many. I thought that between Naraku and I, we had all of the shards. Guess I was wrong." She looked at Inu Yasha once more as tears began to well in her brown oculus. From behind him she saw her friends come, only to gasp in horror at what they saw.

Sango was aghast at what lie before her. Inu Yasha was literally sucking in shards from everywhere. Miroku had placed himself against a tree in attempts to hold back the shards that he carried. That was when Shippou spotted Kagome, and with Sango in pursuit, ran to her. They were seemingly unaffected by the wind and attempted to help their friend.

Howls and screams could now be heard from all directions as shard fragments were ripped from their current possessors. Kagome sobbed onto Sango’s shoulder.

"Why? Why? I wish I knew how to stop it." Sango looked down at her friend.

"There is a way, but I’m not sure I know what it means. Kaede said ‘The demon can only be stopped by a searching of the soul.’ Do you have any idea what that means?" Kagome simply shook her head.

Suddenly, Kagome looked towards the sky. There before her was a piece of the jewel even larger than her own.

"That one must be Naraku’s," she concluded. She watched it enter Inu Yasha’s body. It’s presence alone caused the hole to grow tremendously. ‘Just large enough fo some one to crawl in.’ She noted. "Sango, I think I have an idea, but if I’m wrong, I just want to tell you that I’m sorry." With that she pushed past her friend and ran towards Inu Yasha. Everyone watched in terror as Kagome grasped her piece of the jewel, and stepped into the void.

It was quiet at first. She could not see, hear, or feel anything. Just darkness, then a sudden flash of white light hit her. With it came the torturous screams of both Midoriko and Inu Yasha. When her eyes adjusted, she saw only a single transparent figure. It’s image would flash between that of Inu Yasha, and Midoriko. Kagome gasped, but not at them. The shard in her hand was beginning to burn her, but she held on since it seemed to be the only thing pulling her closer towards the suffering apparition.

When she reached her destination, her hand was literally in flames, but still she held on to her piece of the jewel. When Inu Yasha’s image appeared, she placed a hand on his shoulder. What felt like a wave of electricity flowed through her very being. She screamed, but could not recoil as she was sucked into him. As her flaming hand met him he screamed differently than he had before. In her concern for him she released her piece of the shard and was consumed by the image that was now Midoriko.

***

All but Miroku and Kaede watched in horror as Kagome climbed inside of Inu Yasha. Miroku was busy keeping a grip on his jewel shards, while Kaede had not yet reached the scene. Once Kagome had disappeared, the wind grew stronger and Inu Yasha fell to his knees. His body would not be able to take this much longer, and it was noticeable, even to Sango, that the number of jewel shards in the air was significantly thinning.

The body before them could now be considered nothing more than a black hole. There was no visible flesh, or even shape for that matter. All were afraid that they had lost their both of their best friends. Finally, the shards had stopped coming all together. The pull from Miroku’s had grown phenomenal. He fought, but as a screeching cry sounded from the void, his grip was to be considered useless. Shards ripped through his robes and nicked the tips of his fingers, blood covered his hand as he attempted to catch them once more. He had failed, and now the world was going to come to an end.

As the shard reached the void, the wind stopped, and a soft ‘ouch’ was heard as Kagome stepped from the darkness. The moment her feet touched the ground she fell unconscious, but before she hit the ground, a strong arm cushioned her fall.

All was quiet as the group looked upon the ground in front of them. There lay the now reformed Inu Yasha holding Kagome in his arms. Both held a look of peaceful slumber across their faces, but they were not sleeping, the were unconscious. Miroku, Sango, and Shippou were all too afraid to move, not because of what had just happened, but because of what was happening.

A soft pink glow was covering the couple on the ground. What looked like a completed Shikon No Tama formed in the air. It began rotating slowly, and when it hit a certain angle, you could see that a small portion was missing. Miroku looked to the ground at his shards, they had not made it into the jewel. He rushed over to cover the last of the shards, but it was futile. A large cracking sound emanated from the little glass orb as it once again shattered. This time however, the pieces were so small that they resembled powder. They floated in a small pink cloud for around a minute before shooting off in all directions.

It was at this time that Kaede made her appearance. She gazed at the sand-sized grains as they traveled above her head.

"I see that the jewel did not complete itself on the inside, if at all." She looked to Miroku and his bloody fingertips. "I assume we all have you to thank for that." Miroku stood and glanced at his few shards.

"I suppose so." He rubbed the tips of his fingers together, this caused the blood to look a little worse than it was, but the look of concentration on his face let everyone around him know that he was contemplating some deep or profound thought. Kaede then stepped up next to the unconscious pair.

"You figured it out, Kagome. I had my faith in you." She kneeled down beside the raven-haired maiden, and pushed a few locks away from her face. "Little do you know that you have just made things twice as hard as they were before you shattered it the first time." She shook her head and stood. She began shouting orders to no one in general. "Lace bamboo and reeds together so that we may carry them back. I must make sure that I have all the herbs I need to treat them."She walked into the forest.

Miroku picked up the remaining shards and took is own path to gather materials. Sango looked to Shippou with a very serious face.

"Shippou," she kneeled so that she could look him in the eye, "I have a very important job for you." The kitsune looked at her, his green eyes showed complete focus and attention. "I need you to stay and watch over Kagome and Inu Yasha. I don’t want any youkai coming after them while they are like this, and if either of them wakes up, do not tell them what happened to the jewel. You got that?" Shippou nodded under her intense glare. "I think it’s best that we leave that to Kaede. Thank you." She gave shippou a light kiss on the forehead and righted herself. Once the little fox took his stance next to the comatose duo, she followed the path which Miroku had taken.

With Sango gone, Shippou began to cry. He had been holding it in since Kagome disappeared into Inu Yasha. He just cried and cried. Unable to stand it anymore, he buried his face into Kagome’s skirt. He didn’t know how long he was sobbing, but soon he felt a hand run softly through his hair, and Kagome’s voice.