All Change In Time

♥

Inuyasha lifted his chin with a regal sort of tilt and studied his foe with a new light in his eyes. “ A…proposition?” Then, typical to his normal behavior, he narrowed his gaze and laughed heartily, slapping his knees to express his mockery of the Dark Lord. “ You have got to be kidding me! I would never make a deal with the likes of you.” At the word “never”, Inuyasha’s left hand was guilty of making an obscene signal before it fell to his side. Miroku, embarrassed by his companion’s robust nature, clasped his hand over the bridge of his nose and rubbed away an oncoming headache. They were never going to get anything done with Inuyasha’s mouth leading the party.

Naraku, despite the rudeness directed obviously at him, rolled his cheek against his palm in boredom, sighing lightly while Inuyasha’s laughter carried on. When the halfling had finished, Naraku lifted both his brows and gave an interested look at the out of breath boy. “ Well you do resemble a dog after all…I suppose the correct saying is ‘Curiosity killed the cat.’ is it not?” He smiled pleasantly, knowing he had struck a nerve by the birth of a frown on Inuyasha’s darkening face. “ But then again, being only half demon, even if you were a cat, you’re to human to follow such a saying.” He leaned forward, placing the flats of his elbows on his thighs and cupping his chin. “ Tell me…do you want my proposition or not?”

Miroku murmured and placed a calming pat on Inuyasha’s quivering shoulders, nodding wisely before addressing the enemy. "“Of course we’d like to hear it, Naraku.”

The obedient tone seemed to coax a bit of malice from Inuyasha, who shrugged away the generous hand and stepped forward, his ears pressing forward. “ Speak or die, Naraku.”

Naraku’s upper lip thinned with impatience, and he straightened. “ Very well, Inuyasha.” There was a stretch of silence between the group as his fingers tapped together, ushering a very elegant clapping from between the touching appendages. The beckon went unanswered by the assorted servants who had gathered around the shadows of connecting hallways, and Inuyasha was moments from making a comment about the bad service before a rustle in the curtains surrounding Naraku’s throne made his attention waver. There…was something behind them. A moment later, he found that there was not just one thing…but two. And not just something...but someone.

A soft intake of breath was all Inuyasha could do when the spotlight on Naraku seemed to shift and play on two beings, the faces so familiar while being so strange. The purple and black bruises on the flesh could do little more than flush the faces beneath them, and the soft eyes of Kagome opened and turned to the boy standing below them.

“ Inuyasha!” Kagome’s voice was clear and heavy with joy, but the happiness was also tinged with terrible fear, and her hands clenched together above her head, where they had been tightly bound by a coil of rope. Her skin was marred and beaten by the abuse from Naraku, but a healthy glow burned in her eyes as she stared at her hero, a smile forming where there had lately been an undying frown. True…though she had departed from him days ago with such sorrow and anger in her heart, she had replaced it already with the joy of knowing he had come to rescue her after all, even though he obviously had a future with his precious Kikyou in the forest. She had thought she hated him for his repeated betrayal to her. A tear glistened beautifully on her cheek as she shook her head, understanding her emotions well. She loved Inuyasha.

She might have told him, had she not been silenced by Naraku’s voice. “ So Inuyasha! Are you ready to choose?”

Inuyasha had hardly the will to turn his face from his beloved Kagome, but he turned his attention dumbly on Naraku anyway with a small grunt. “ Choose what?” As far as he was concerned, he had nothing to choose from. Kagome was here, and though she was a little worse for wear at the moment, he was certain that it was nothing a week or two of relaxation couldn’t handle. His insides were burning in contained delight at seeing her smile again, and his hand fell loose around the hilt of his sword, unable to conjure anger at the relief of seeing her alive and…in one piece.

But his glee was not to wallow in. “ Inuyasha,” Naraku began, turning his head with mild interest at each maiden at his side, “ I cannot allow you to escape with both women. As you may or may not already know, I had sent a fake Kikyou at your previous location in order to make your life askew. She was merely an extension of myself, much like Kagura, who I hear has already come into contact with you.” He waved one hand as Inuyasha took another step forward, his irritation growing steadily. “ But this is of no importance now. I have obviously gone to a lot of trouble in order to acquire the true Kikyou (he gestured softly toward the still unconscious and bloodied priestess on his right) and her reincarnation Kagome (he now gestured to the wriggling girl on his left, smiling lightly). But since you have come all this way, I will allow you to choose.”

Inuyasha threw his hands up in the air in frustration, glancing wishfully from Kikyou to Kagome, while his face twisted painfully. “ I…I don’t understand! Choose WHAT?!”

Naraku laughed before scathing the air with the hardened tones of his voice. “ You must choose one or the other. Whoever you decide to take back home with you, the other will die. And you will choose who is to die and who is to live. It shouldn’t be too hard. You do love one more than the other right?”

The question hit Inuyasha like a punch, throwing him down one step and forcing his hands to clutch his chest. Miroku, who had been quite thus far, made a hard noise in the back of his throat and followed the same basic reaction, while Kirara reared to all fours and snarled at the fiend. Naraku’s face was expectant, while Kagome shrank into her bindings with a nauseated moan, her skin turning pale under her bruises. How could Naraku ask Inuyasha to choose who to save and who to leave behind?! But there was a deeper connection to her reaction than just Inuyasha being told to choose. She knew…he’d choose Kikyou, because he always chose her. Which meant she was going to die.

“ No!”

Everyone focused their attention on Inuyasha, who had a small look of calm to him as he lowered his hands to his sides, throwing back his head. “ I will not choose. Let them both go…and take me instead.” Naraku’s mouth fell open in slight awe at the whelp’s sudden bravery, and he leaned forward, as though considering. “ You would do this? Willingly surrender your life for two wenches who are meant to be nothing more than creatures that host offspring?”

“ They are not wenches.” Inuyasha swallowed a lump in his throat and lowered his gaze to his feet. He wanted to confess that they meant everything to him…but the words would not take form in his mouth.

“ Inuyasha!” Kagome had suddenly sprang to life, sobbing hysterically while she surged forward on her feet, fighting her restraints. “Please take Kikyou and go!” She rolled back on her heels, casting her glance tearfully to the side, avoiding the look of agony on her true love’s face. “ I cannot bear to see the look of pain on your face from your desire to be with her. I am only in the way…I am worthless.” She choked on the last part, barely whispering the sentence over her hitching breath. Every word she spoas tas truthfully and honest, and although she feared a death by Naraku more than most things, she did not wish to hamper Inuyasha’s happiness by simply being too afraid to die. So she concluded that although her heart was crumbling already within her chest, she had managed to actually do something good in her life. She had put someone else, not to mention someone else who had caused her so much pain, before her own benefit. She actually felt a tiny glow inside by merely confirming that she was not as selfish as she had claimed she was.

Inuyasha’s eyes brimmed with tears, listening to Kagome practically sacrifice herself to certain death. So it was true…he had caused her pain. Dejectedly, he sniffled and wiped his eyes with the back of his head, but he could say nothing to ease the painful speech made by his human friend. He loved Kagome so much. But Kikyou’s regal start lifted itself and embellished a soft expression. She had never felt anything more than her undead thirst for revenge, and the dead Kikyou inside of her (that is, the part of her who truly loved Inuyasha) swelled and managed to grasp a moment of admiration for the halfling that had already struggled through so much. One eye was only partly open, the lid swollen from previous punishment, but she still resembled Kagome in as many ways as she differed from her. She could not say anything, but this seemed to be a disease among the group, and the hush made Naraku shift lazily. “ Well?” He asked, inquiring of Inuyasha again.

Inuyasha could not say a thing…how on earth could he choose?

♥

The walls were dank and had no direction about them, but Sesshomaru was no deterred from his target. He did not require a tour guide to help him seek out Rin, as his nose did the job well over the abilities of any demon in this castle. In fact, it only took a few snuffs before he was limping down the last stretch of castle ground, winding toward the servant quarters. At least…he guessed that was the reason for the foul odors that lashed his sensitive sense of smell. He hoped that Naraku had not killed Rin and cruelly dumped her in a pit of corpses.

Soft presses of fear made Sesshomaru’s heart clench tightly, causing him to stumble mid step. The floor was moist from collected dew, and this made his movements handicapped enough, but with his grasping feet, he managed to go to the end of the hall, where it came to a dead end. Or so he thought. It was by pure luck that he spied a narrow opening on the dead end’s right side, where a small lean-to had been constructed. And it was by more luck that he saw a pallid piece of skin peeking out from under an animal skin that was being used as shelter from the cold.

Sesshomaru sighed deeply, kneeling down by the shelter and crooning deeply to the little girl that was shuddering under her pelt. Rin’s face barely changed from its expression of despair to joy before she had made it to him, throwing her arms around his neck with uncontrollable sobs shaking her entire body. Sesshomaru wrapped his arms around her, feeling the bones of her starved body, and found a new source of pain besides his worry. She had been through so much. Quietly, he let her cry, merely encouraging her expression of relief by stroking one finger up and down the length of her back, trying to urge some sort of comfort by merely touching her. He imagined that she had not been caressed in such a gentle manner the entire time she had been here.

“ Shh…hush now Rin.” Sesshomaru found he had slight difficulty in restraining his tears, for the sight of her roused pity that he was inexperienced with. Her eyes reflected his image as she removed her moist face from the crook of his mangled neck, glistening with more love than he ever recalled her having shown him. She did not smile as she did in his earlier memories, but she still gave a weak expression of happiness, before moving her face to his chest, tilting an ear to the heart that hammered nervously within his ribcage. She seemed content this way, her gaze fluttering almost shut, before she leaned forward and nuzzled herself completely in his arms, murmuring his name over and over to confirm this was a creature of safety…a creature of security.

As she nested close to him, he sighed under his breath, suddenly aware that his reputation for being a cold leader was a rumor of the past now. But he smirked wryly, scooping the child in his arms as he st He He did not care anymore…he had Rin, and he knew why he had gone to all this trouble to get her back. She was his adopted human. She was more than a pet to him. She was his daughter. Although Sesshomaru had no mate as well as no female in courting range, he had a daughter of his very own. He knew her faults, but they were miniscule compared to her amazing talent and bravery. But by merely surviving here without the consent of suicide or becoming a lifeless puppet she had prove herself worthy of the title by Sesshomaru. She curled her legs up under her, evidently weary of being placed aside and left behind, and tightly clung to the front of Sesshomaru’s robes. He did not scold her, but merely kissed the flat of her forehead to soothe her, before smiling sweetly as she returned the gesture.

All would have gone well for the pair, had the imposter Kikyou not been condemned to the hallway of which Sesshomaru had planned to exit ugh.ugh. He had no plots in wandering the castle and rescuing Kagome, but it was not because he had forgotten her. He just thought she must have been dead, being that Naraku despised her so much and had taken her away without so much as a goodbye. He had been in a rush to get somewhere…and that rush could have been easily aided by killing the maiden instead of going to the trouble of keeping her around. He had no foresight irakuraku’s plot, which was taking place halfway across the castle.

But the fake Kikyou, cursed with her duties and reliance to Naraku, coincidentally located herself in the Lord’s path, folding her arms over her bosom with a sneer on her face. “ That child is not yours, Sesshomaru.”

Sesshomaru was almost strangled as Rin struggled to get closer to him, wincing as the girl’s fingers piloted their way through his attire and glued to the warm flesh beneath. Was she trying to become an appendage of his? Concerned about his daughter’s safety, Sesshomaru fought briefly with the tangled limbs and set Rin aside, putting on arm in front of her to provide a gate of passage. “ She was mine originally, and rudely borrowed from my manor. I am merely taking back what is rightfully mine.” His amber eyes narrowed, quickly becoming ill with this reincarnation. He had Rin, and he wanted to leave.

Kikyou chortled and lifted on finger in his direction, wagging it through the air to scold him like a puppy whom had wet on the floor. “ Silly Sesshomaru. By body and by mind, Rin has been claimed. She can not leave until Naraku is dead.” Smirking now, she stepped aside, bowing her head while courting her hands toward the open exit doors. “ Go ahead and try. Her head will only explode after all…but I’m sure that’s nothing you can’t handle.”

Lowering her head was the stupidest mistake an enemy of Sesshomaru could make. She had no more than expressed her last word before he rushed forward and preyed upon her like a vulture on a corpse, his fingers embedding at the roots of her shoulders and pinning her in that very bow she graced him with. The imposter’s brown eyes stared open with obvious horror at her fleeting mistake, and she tried to squirm away from him, but it was far too late for her to save herself. Moments later, crimson blood spattered on the surrounding walls and on the offending Lord, who crushed the foe’s neck with a simple squeeze of his hands. His face was blank and pitiless, drastically altered from just moments before when he had allowed a young child to bury herself against him.

The body fell forward as he released it, the skull making a sick noise as it connected with the concrete. Sesshomaru spun neatly around and looked fondly at Rin, who had shrank back a bit from him, but then returned the gesture of trust by rushing into his open arms, where he resumed holding her, returning to his duty of carrying her with a quick nod of his head. He had to find Naraku if he was to get Rin safely home. Whether it was a trick or not, he could not risk marring Rin’s pretty face with a combusted brain. No he certainly could not!

♥

[Writer] Eeeee! -dances about- Almost finished! So the climax is building...characters are reunitiing...and I hope it's all turning out ok according to you guys ^_^ -glances at chart- Hmm...I'm guessing 3 more chapters. Climax in 2 more chapters, and ending (wrapping up all loose ends) in the 3rd. -dances more- [End Writer]