The first thing Kagome was aware of when she came to, were the sounds of battle not too far away. Next was her vision. Sango's worried, and still a bit blurry face, was the first thing she saw.

"How are you feeling, Kagome-chan?" Sango asked quietly.

"Light headed," she replied in a whisper, "where are the others?"

"They are still fighting. Shippo went back to Kaede's to fetch you some herbs, though."

Kagome nodded, which resulted in beautifully colored sparkles doing the cha-cha-cha in front of her eyes. Despite this, she tried to sit up, but Sango kept her down. Kagome eyed her friend angrily.

"I have to get back to them! I can help!"

"You're out of arrows, what are you going to do?"

Kagome huffed. Sure, Sango was right, all she was marginally good at was archery, she had never learned to fight with any other weapon. But still, her friends were in need, and she was not about to leave them hanging. She swatted Sango's hand away angrily, and sat up. Big, black blotches were her reward this time. Breathing heavily, she shakily stood up, using Sango as her support. She eyed the bandages around her waist, which seemed to by tied in a hurry. Sesshoumaru's pelt lay discarded to the side, evidence of her bloodloss clear to see. She was surprised to see how small the bloodstain actually was, compared to how dizzy she felt.

"Don't you want to get back to Miroku and help him?"

Feeling guilty for using emotional bribery on her friend was not going to stop her from getting her way. She could see Sango already starting to consider it. All she needed was a little nudge.

"I promise I'll stay out of sight. You can't leave me alone here, who knows what'll find me. At least when you take me with you, you'll be able to keep an eye on me."

Sango looked at her worriedly. Kagome smiled at her.

"I'll be fine, I promise."

"All right then. But you have to stay out of sight!"

Nodding carefully, so as not to upset her head anymore, Kagome stumbled alongside of Sango, as she lead her by the arm towards the sounds of the still ongoing battle.

When they got to the clearing, Sango pushed Kagome into a nearby shrubbery and told her in a very strict tone of voice not to move under any circumstances. Kagome nodded like she was a good 5-year old, and averted her eyes to the battlefield. She was happy to see Naraku was definitely having a hard time against the three males still present, but scared to see that they weren't doing so hot either. InuYasha's left arm was hanging limply at his side, probably broken in multiple places. Miroku had used up every last sutra he had prepared, and with just his staff left, he was not doing a lot of damage, but at least he had managed to stay unharmed except for a few nasty bruises.

Sesshoumaru, was, on the other hand, completely unscathed. His clothes didn't show so much as a tear or a smudge, and nothing on him betrayed that he had been in close combat for the better part of the last half hour or so. She watched as he gracefully moved out of the way of Naraku's attacks, and drive home his own blows. For a split second, he looked directly at her, before cutting off one of the tentacles Naraku still had left. She felt as if she had been caught doing something defiant or incredibly stupid, which, in effect, she was, and a blush crept up her cheeks.

Still, the battle went on, and with Sango now back in play, Naraku had it worse than before. She cheered silently as more and more parts of Naraku started to disintegrate, faster than he could re-grow them. She could not help but grin as Naraku bore a scowl that could scare a hyena away from a fresh carcass. She watched, disgusted, as he reached into himself with his right hand, right next to where his heart would have been had he had one, and extracted his part of the jewel. As he palmed it, a deranged grin formed his mouth.

Suddenly, a ripple seemed to move through the clearing, through her body itself. The pouch she had around her neck, containing the shards they had painstakingly gathered, pulsed in response. It levitated itself above her chest, and started to pull against the chain it was tethered to. She grabbed onto it, clenching it tightly between her hands, and pulled it back against her body. When she looked up again, Naraku was right in front of her.

"Thought you could hide from me, little miko?" he asked in a sickeningly sweet tone.

She could hear InuYasha berating Sango for bringing her back in the background as they all made a mad dash for her, but she knew that they would not make it in time. Drones of saimyoshi had appeared out of nowhere, keeping them from reaching her. Naraku's grin only grew in response to their frantic yelling.

"Together again. Do not think I will make the same mistake twice, Ka-go-me."

An explosion in the background. Pieces of wasps flying everywhere. An outraged howl, but from which of the brothers, Kagome could not tell. It did not seem to faze her nemesis.

"I wonder what your friends would do, if I were to do…" He trailed off, suddenly grabbing her by the neck at unimaginable speed, turning around and spinning her in front of him.

"…this," he whispered dangerously.

All she saw was a flash of silver in front of her, and then there was pain, indescribable, searing pain, that spread from her stomach outwards. Eyes wide with shock, she looked down, only to see Bakusaiga buried up to the hilt in her stomach. Looking back up, she stared into Sesshoumaru's face. His expression betrayed nothing, but his eyes spoke to her. They betrayed his surprise, his fear and his regret.

She smiled at him. Blood gushed out between her teeth. Behind her, she could hear Naraku gurgling and gasping for breath. A strange sensation around the wound told her the flesh around it was getting infected and starting to dissolve. InuYasha was screaming, Sango was crying while Miroku tried to comfort her. Sesshoumaru was still staring at her. Naraku was sputtering out his last breath in her neck.

"You got him," she whispered as her legs started to give away. He caught her effortlessly, sliding Naraku off his sword and to the ground, but not her. It would only speed up the bleeding.

"I ruined your pelt," she ground out, trying to stay awake, "I bled all over it."

"It is of no consequence," he murmured. It might have been her senses failing her, but she swore he hugged her tighter, careful not to hurt her further than he had.

"It's ok," she told him, almost choking on her own blood.

The sounds were the first to go. All she could hear was her own frantic heartbeat, along with his steady one. Everything else had gone silent. Next was her touch. All she felt was a cold numbness. She strained to keep a focus on Sesshoumaru's face, but she was fighting a lost battle. Smiling at him once more, she closed her eyes.

"I'll be fine," she whispered, "I'll be fine, I promise."

AN: I don't own anything, just this story. This will be the last chapter of Cold, I might do a sequel, but... well, we'll see. I hope I didn't let you down too much on this, suddenly turning it into a drama-fic and all that, but it just seemed right this way. This whole story is dedicated to Shimaira, who, even though I forgot her birthday, helped me write this last chapter.