Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Inuyasha characters. But Shesta is mine.

Past Forgotten

Chapter 1

"This doesn't look like the place I was aiming for." Shesta muttered to herself as she glanced around.

The slight breeze that ran down the middle of the village ruffled through her long, jet-black hair, and nagged at her black pants and shirt. The breeze carried with it the smell of rotting flesh. It took her a moment to realize that even though it was the middle of the day there were no sounds.

She squinted her red eyes as she tried to figure out just what went wrong with her teleport. After several times of mentally going through the calculations in her head, she could find nothing wrong. She gathered herself to try once more. Closing her eyes, she envisioned the place that she had first aimed for. A tingling sensation ran through her body as she made the jump.

She groaned when she saw that she had not moved. This had never happened before. She glanced around at the seemingly dead village. If it wasn't for the fact that the houses were Japanese, she could just imagine tumbleweed getting blown across the street with western music playing in the background.

She noticed a large package leaning against one of the buildings.

"I wonder…." she said aloud.

It was a simple thing really, and did not require the same amount of concentration as teleporting across dimensions. She willed the box to her side. Almost immediately the box disappeared in a silent flash of light only to reappear next to her in another.

"It still seems to work." She said thoughtfully.

She was going to try teleporting again when a scream rang through the deserted village. It sounded like a child. Her attention was drawn to the house at the far side of the village. She watched as a child burst out the door, only to be dragged back inside kicking and screaming for someone named Sesshoumaru. Nobody treats a child like that. Her red eyes started to glow as her anger rose. She marched down the street, getting angrier with each step she took. The sounds of laughter reached her ears. She stood at the door, barely controlling her anger. Some of her past enemy's had mistakenly thought that her love for children was her weak point. Oh, were they wrong.

"Haha, you should have seen that little toad protecting her, grumbling all the time," a rough voice spoke.

"The little girl looks sweet. Its too bad the boss wants her alive. I could use a little snack." Another voice said, sounding a little like a snake.

Shesta had heard enough. With an angry roar, she kicked in the door. A group of men looked up at their unexpected visitor. The men had scales covering them from head to toe. In the back of her mind she labeled them as demons. More specifically, dragon demons. She really didn't know how she came to that conclusion but it seemed to fit.

The demons were sitting in a circle. In the middle was the little girl, the tattered remains of a red and white checkered dress doing a poor job of hiding all the cuts and bruises marking her body. Off to the side, a small green body lay on the floor as though it was some discarded piece of trash. And leaning up against the wall was a staff with two human heads. One of a woman and the other a man. It somehow looked familiar to her, but at the moment she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Hand me the girl and you won't get hurt." Shesta growled in warning.

"The girl is ours, go find your own." One of the dragon demons sneered.

Shesta crossed the few feet to the one who had spoken. A look of surprise crossed the demon's face as he was lifted into the air.

"I don't want another girl. I want this one." Shesta growled at the demon.

She threw the demon across the room. Just before it hit the far wall, she quickly reinforced it with a shield. The demon hit it with a grunt and crumpled to the floor.

"Then there were five." She chanted to herself.

She noticed one of the remaining demons look around at his friends.

"Let's get her; there is only one of her and five of us." He said.

All five of them leapt at her. Shesta changed the energy in the shield that she always kept around her to as pure an energy as she could make it. She could only do it for a short time, but it was enough. There were several screams of pain as the demons hit it. Smoke, and the smell of burnt flesh, filled the air.

"How? Only miko's have the power to purify. No demon could do that."

One of the demons asked in surprise and pain. He was cradling one of his arms.

A small smirk slowly crept onto Shesta's face. "I am not a demon."

The demon paled. "Let's get out of here!" The demons picked themselves off the floor and crashed through the sides of the house.

Shesta turned her attention to the little girl and looked her over. "We need to find you something to wear," Shesta said after taking note of the state in which her dress was in.

She searched through her dimensional closet knowing that at some point she had put a small dress in it for safe keeping. She couldn't remember when or how she had first discovered this small dimension. It was no bigger then a large pantry. She had started stocking it with travel needs, a first aid kit, pots and pans for cooking, emergency rations, and of course a year supply of popcorn. Over the years she had collected things from the places she had traveled, one being the dress.

"Aw, here it is." She exclaimed. She held up a dark green dress to the little girl.

The little girl smiled at her as she took the dress, and moved quickly toward a tall desk, the only piece of furniture in the house. Soon the girl came out from behind the desk wearing the dress, which was a bit too large, but just a bit. The girl gave her a goofy grin and ran to her, the grateful expression on her face dispelling what anger remained in Shesta. Shesta's eyes returned to their normal shade of soft red.

"Rin thanks you." she said, staring up at her from where she had wrapped her small arms around one of Shesta's legs in a hug.

Shesta looked down and smiled, "You are welcome Rin."

A slight creaking sound reached her ears. She spun around to see what had made the noise. The toad demon had woken up, and had just grabbed the two-headed staff. He panicked, and the staff spit fire at her. The fire splashed harmlessly against her shields.

The small demon's face fell. "Lady Shesta? I am sorry, please, I didn't mean to." He looked visibly shaken, obviously fearing for his life.

Shesta stared down at the cowering demon. "How do you know my name?" Shesta demanded.

The demon blinked his large yellow eyes. "You don't remember? The spell worked better then I thought."

"What spell? Do you mean to tell me that a spell brought me here?" She growled as she took a threatening step toward the cowering demon. Before she could do anything else, the little girl had placed herself between her and the demon.

"Don't hurt lord Jaken, he is Rin's friend."

Shesta blinked in surprise. "Don't worry, I won't hurt him. After all he's going to tell us a story tonight." Shesta said meaningfully, glaring at Jaken.

"Come. Let's get out of this ghost town and get something to eat." She walked out the door and started for the woods that surrounded the village with Rin skipping along beside her. Bringing up the rear was a very troubled Jaken.