It's like a knife through the heart when it all falls apart.
It's like someone takes a pin to your balloon.
It's hole, it's a cave, it's kinda like a grave,
When he tells you that he's found somebody new.
Why they call it fallin', now I know.

-Unknown

Chapter One: Fractured Compassion

She just ran.

It was the only thing that she could manage to do in the sad circumstances. It was the only thing that was keeping her from curling in on herself and wishing she was dead, or perhaps that she never existed at all. The tears streaming down her pale cheeks blurred her azure vision of the lush forests around her and left the bitter taste of salt on quivering lips. She didn't care that she was getting more and more lost, deeper and deeper into areas she was unfamiliar with. She didn't care about much of anything, her very soul felt somehow numbed by what she'd seen.

She made her legs move faster.

Her breath was getting much heavier as soft ebon hair flowed behind her rushed escape. She wasn't about to let something like her body screaming for air pause her retreat. It was a matter of pain that she was fighting to not remember. To not think about her first love's lips on those of that other sufferable woman… Or the way he had curled his arms around her in an embrace she would only ever be able to long for. How he hadn't chased her at all when she fled from where she'd found them entwined with each other.

She pushed herself even harder.

Hoping perhaps that she would make herself black out so she wouldn't have to deal with her overwhelming misery. That the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness would work as a temporary cure to this matchless anguish. It was a self-defeating departure.

The burning in her lungs was making her gasp in long breaths now as her legs started to slow…she fought her bodies weakness as best she could to press forward. She was going to do anything possible to get away from the betrayal of that man. To escape the only way she knew how in the situation that she had been cruelly shoved into.

With the tears blocking her sight and her feet moving just to keep in motion it was no surprise she didn't notice the cliff that had come up on her, the sudden feeling of freefalling after her quick flight from the village left her without the air to scream as she fell.

She bitterly smiled as she closed her eyes, wondering if the fall to her possible doom in the darkness of the new moon was somehow a simile for the scene she'd just been witness to. Her final thought before she blacked out before impact was that she didn't particularly mind that she would pass from the world unheard…not anymore.

It was dark enough out without the moonlight and with most of the stars covered by clouds that seemed to be threatening heavy rain that the small imp stumbling through the forest was having a time of it. His muttered complaints about the girl he was stuck 'babysitting' going without ears to hear them as they always did.

"Rin!" His squeaky voice called out to the woods around him. "Where are you, you troublesome girl! Always off getting lost and making me waste my and Lord Sesshomaru's time searching for you!"

He seemed accustomed to being irritated and unlikely to stop being so for some time. More mumbled curses followed his tripping over an unseen branch and into a bunch of vines, getting himself heavily entangled in the process of trying to fight his way free.

A fit of rage only managed to make his entanglement worse and he hung there as Rin's light laughter mocked his position.

"Master Jaken." She chimed with a natural cheerfulness that was never far beneath her also bubbly surface. "Why are you playing in there? You'll get yourself stuck you know."

"Rin…just help me get out of here." the imp snapped back at her, glaring a little as he demanded the aid from the young girl.

The eight year old heroine just giggled away the threatening look and reached out to save her green companion, tugging him loose of the foliage that searched to tie him up. Then jumping back with a frightened squeal as another body fell within view when she disturbed the herb prison, sliding down but not quite falling all the way to the ground.

Jaken had jumped with the youth to safety behind a nearby trunk, peering out with the girl toward the perceived threat before he recognized the girl that was always traveling with the worthless half-breed Inuyasha. He strode bravely forward with his new knowledge and poked her with the staff in his hands, eyeing her broken body as it swung without movement in response to his prodding.

"It's Kagome." Rin blinked nervously. "is she okay Master Jaken?"

"I don't think so…" Jaken answered seriously as he took in her wounds.

She had a broken arm, the strange angle at which it was bent made it obvious even with the lack of much light to observe her with. She had blood from a larger wound he couldn't determine along with a few dozen other cuts. The whole right side of her face was so heavily bruised he had to wonder if her brain had survived such a massive impact - the only thing that could have caused such a thing. If she was still alive then even he had to pity the pain she would feel upon waking from such a state.

"She's still breathing." Rin announced with a measure of relief, releasing a breath she didn't notice she was holding until she spoke. "We need to get Lord Sesshomaru to help her Master Jaken!"

"He has better things to do than come to the aid of some wench of his half-brother's Rin." Jaken frowned at her instant assumption that his lord would lift a finger for a human. He had to admit that Sesshomaru's protecting Rin was strange but he realized that it must be some sort of personal code to keep her alive as he had been the one to return her to life after she'd died.

"What is going on here Jaken?" The deep timbre of the lord of the west immediately removed Jaken from his other thoughts and he turned around so quickly he nearly fell over.

The dog demon seemed to radiate his own gentle light, a trick because of his white garments and silvered hair but something that only aided his grand stature. The fluff that was his tail curled and flowed in the gentle wind that was blowing, swaying in unison to the unconscious and still hanging upside down Kagome. Amber eyes looked over the woman, his superior vision picking up the injuries that Jaken was listing off as well as a few he had missed.

It seemed one of her legs was broken in a couple places where the vine had tangled around it and was still holding her above the ground. She smelled so heavily of blood that he was having trouble picking up many other scents around her. He stared for a time before starting to turn away, his expression never changing.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin called in childish protest. "We need to help her! We can't just leave her here. She'll die!"

He resisted the urge to sigh but paused and turned to look over the girl again.

Just what was Inuyasha's woman doing here in such a state? Did she get separated from all of her friends so much that they were unaware of her invalid state. He glanced upward at the top of the long fall she's survived and had to admit the fact that she had survived at all was impressive by itself. He didn't need more difficulties but she'd interfered before in an attempt to aid him during the final battle with Naraku. He didn't really owe her anything but something gave him the idea he'd never hear the end of it if he did leave her. For Rin's peace of mind if nothing else he could carry her back to his estate and have a servant tend to her wounds. If she didn't survive then at least his young ward wouldn't constantly remind him of his failure to at least attempt.

His mind made up in a quick series of motions he cut down the girl and kept her from falling by letting her blood stain his kimono. Her eyes were swollen from tears he just managed to scent because of the closeness now. It added to the curiosity of how she'd gotten into this position but he would have the chance to ask later if the desire touched him to bother with it.

She was slumbering for the moment, it would be a shock if she woke up at all but if it would make Rin feel better, the simple act of transferring her back to his home was something he would offer.

"But…Lord…she's just a human…Inuyasha's little…" Jaken started to protest before a single golden glance silenced him. The imp still staring in annoyed disbelief of what he was watching. Worried he might have a second girl to be caretaker for if she didn't end up dead.

"See…told you Lord Sesshomaru wouldn't just leave her." Rin proclaimed proudly to Jaken, standing up straighter and sticking her tongue out at him. "You don't know him at all."

"Why you…" Jaken started to retort but then had to jump up and grab onto Sesshomaru's long tail as he took off into the sky, floating on a cloud that came into existence beneath him at his will. The vexed lesser demon hanging on for dear life as they sped through the air toward the west.

End Chapter

Author Notes: This fiction is placed after what I consider the end of the series. Sesshomaru has both of his arms because as of now he has both arms back in the manga (cheer). I'm writing this fiction for October's 'write a novel' month thing. I'm hoping to hit 50,000 words by the end of the month (gulp) but I guess I'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading.

-Aura