Chapter One: The Keeper of Time

Kagome sat idly at her apartment window. She was supposed to be doing something important, but she instead decided that watching the rain was a better way to pass the time. It had been like this on that day almost three years ago. Well at least on the other side of the well it had been rainy; on her side it had been ironically sunny.

Truth be told, she should be grateful in a way. None the less, sometimes she felt like she would have rather stayed and took her chances.

Sesshoumaru had been the one to push her into the well. It was strange, because it really should have been Inuyasha to do so. She had completed the jewel. Naraku was only a few feet away half purified. The gang was already rejoicing because the complete and untainted jewel now sat in Kagome's hands. Only Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha knew that Kagome was still in an area of critical danger.

The taiyoukai had given his services to the gang for the fight on the behalf of Rin. Kagome had rescued the girl only a week before when Sesshoumaru failed to do so. In a way of repayment, he showed up the day of the final battle. Well then again, Kagome never found out how the battle really ended.

The scene happened in slow motion. She was in front of the well, beaming at the jewel that rested in her hands. A bloody Inuyasha stood to her left glancing her way and then back at Naraku. Sesshoumaru stood a few feet away to her right, sword still drawn. Songo and Miroku were behind them. Naraku lay tattered only a few feet in front of Kagome. She had thought he was dead. The power that had just pulsed through her hands to purify him should have surely killed him. She had no idea...

"How did you do that?" Inuyasha had asked with a grin and she had smiled back.

"Stand your guard." Sesshoumaru's voice was so low she had almost missed it.

The attack was in slow motion. A dagger of venom was flying towards her as Naraku's last action. The strange thing was that Inuyasha was closer to her, but he was not the one that reacted. She knew that it was Sesshoumaru that pushed her down the well, because while they both fell she had caught his golden eyes and over his back she had seen Inuyasha's amber ones. The last thing she remembered before she hit the bottom was that something wet had hit her hand. As the well took her through time she felt the jewel slip out of her hand because of the unidentified wetness.

When she got to her side of the well she had looked at her hand. Red. Sesshoumaru's blood.

She had tried endlessly to get back; but it was of no use. The well no longer worked. She had figured it was because she no longer had the jewel. She couldn't remember when it had slipped through her hand: before she was pulled through time or while she was being pulled through time. She didn't think that the later was possible and she hoped that it wasn't. The jewel being lost in time gave her an uneasy feeling.

As the rain fell she couldn't help but wonder what had happened on the other side of the well. Also, she couldn't help but wonder why Sesshoumaru had taken the dagger for her. The dagger would not kill him-she knew that much. Inuyasha must have been frozen in fear. She knew for a fact that the hanyou would have laid his life down for her. But Sesshoumaru? Maybe it was all paying back the debt of her saving Rin.

She sighed and removed herself from the window. Today was her interview with the Tokyo Journal. For almost the last three years she had been working her butt off to finish collage and become a journalist. Her major was in history and she was still finishing up her journalist degree, but the job was open to those who didn't have degree but where in the process of getting one. It was a huge opportunity. The Tokyo journal was the most read magazine in all of Japan. It had a section for politics, fashion, family, love, history, sport and much more! She flipped on her music and started getting dressed.

For the most part, she had learned how to move on. She had come to terms with the fact that she would never return to the past and she would never know what happened that rainy day. It was time for her to grow up in her own time. And grow she did. The well haunted her at her mother's home; so she got a job and moved to Tokyo as soon as she could. She visited often, and sometimes she would sit on the lip of the well just to try to remember what her old life was like. To remind her that it really had happened.

She looked herself over: dark red turtle neck, black skirt, black tights, black ankle boots, colorful scarf, black coat. Spring was still a good month away and it was sure to be cold outside even with the rain. Picking up her purse, small briefcase/laptop case, and keys she headed to the car lot.

...ooo...

"Well Miss Higurashi, your writing is very impressive I must say. And you are so young." Kagome smiled at the older man with glasses on that sat a cross from her.

"Yes, well I thought that since I knew where I was going, why waste time trying to get there?" the man smiled at her. He was the senior writer of the "Life and more" section of the journal.

"I would think, a girl like you and dressed how you are that you would be interviewing with the fashion section." another smile she forced

"No, that isn't for me, but I do enjoy dressing nicely; as any girl." he glanced at her again and looked down at her resume.

"You do seem to have a brain under that pretty mask, and a heart for writing." Kagome smiled, yet again but said nothing. It was something that she heard constantly in her classes from both the students and her teachers. She always seemed to earn respect by the end of the semester, though.

"It seems that our time for this interview has run out," he said putting her papers away in a filing cabinet and she stood as he did. "But we will be in contact with you for a second interview." this time she smiled a real smile. She had been extremely nervous for the interview but somewhere deep down she knew that she good enough for the open position.

As she headed out of the office and made her way to the elevator she looked at the buttons. The building had 20 floors. She almost pushed 20 just so she could see what exactly the top floor held.

Her cell phone rang and she pushed the parking garage level and answered it.

"Hello?" she said

"Hey!!" Hojo's voice reached her ear and she smiled. She had become good friends with him in the past years, mainly because she opened up and told him about her trips to the past. He had actually believed! No matter, she still thought him a friend. "How was the interview?"

"It was good! They said they would call me for a second interview." She told him with a bright smile on.

"Really? That's great, Kagome. I'm proud of you." she exited the elevator and began to search for her car. She always had trouble remembering where she parked it.

"Yeah, but not as great as you finally getting into med-school." she laughed. She always teased him over the fact that his dream career would take a little longer then her own.

"Hey that's not fair Kagome! You just wait and see who makes the big bucks in the end!" the two laughed ad she reached her car and unlocked it.

"Yeah, I'm about get into the car so I'll talk to you later, k?" she put the key in the ignition.

"Okay, but we gotta celerbrate tonight."

"I haven't got the job yet dummy." she told him and he laughed.

"You? I mean me!! For finally getting into med school." she laughed and nodded before she realized that he couldn't see her.

"Okay okay, well I'll text you when I get home."

"Alright, talk to you later!"

"Bye Hojo."

"Bye."

She dropped her phone in the cup holder and turned up the music as she reversed and drove away. At the same time, a parking garage below, the CEO of Tokyo Journal who worked on the 20th floor, pulled out also.

.....ooo.....

There was nothing worse then a flat tire in the rain. Unless of course getting that flat tire in the backstreets of an alley, that was meant to be a shortcut. She groaned as her blackberry showed absolutely no bars. Grabbing her umbrella she headed out into the rain and was greeted with a large gust of wind that knocked the umbrella right out of her hands. She let out a second groan and a stamp of a foot, which made her drop her keys that rolled under her car.

"Geeze what next!" she exclaimed as she shoved her phone into her coat pocket.

"Me." She stilled before she turned to see where the voice came from. She had not felt what she was feeling in three years. Youkai. There was no doubt about it. She turned slowly and squinted through the rain. Through the hard rain she could only make out a dark figure. She blinked and suddenly he was right in front of her smacking her across the face.

She was thrown into her car and hit her head on the ground of stone. her vision became fuzzy and felt a hot liquid run down her face. Apparently she was a bit rusty on her fighting skills. Even though she had continued practice, the element of surprise had knocked her a good one.

A hard blow hit her stomach and she stopped every attempt to get up and instead reached for a rock, channeled her purifying power in it and threw in the direction she hoped the youkai stood. A hiss and a curse confirmed that she had a hit, but that it was not enough. Looking up she realized that her keys where in an arms reach! Just as she made a motion to grab it, she was pulled by the feet back.

Her face once again hit the pavement and she felt herself lose grip on her surroundings. Suddenly the attack stopped and she heard a different voice.. It certainly produced no youkai aura and her heart clenched at the thought of a human coming to help her and facing a youkai's rath! Using strength that she didn't have, she pushed herself up from the ground.

Confusion over took her as she examined the scene. The man who the youkai arua radiated off of was being beat! By a human! In quick moves her savior knocked out the youkai in only a few blows! He had sent him into the wall of the building!

Leaning on the car for support she waited for her rescuer to turn around. He was young. Long black hair ran down his back and a set of hazel eyes glanced at her. She knew him from somewhere; her head just hurt too much to think right now. She gasped and leaned more on her car as searing pain hit her head.

"Miko." she felt her eyes widen. Wasn't he human...? How could he have known? What was going on?!?

"How..did you know?" she managed to say and the man only took a few steps closer. No smile lit his face, his eyes were indifferent. Then it hit her: he was the CEO of the Tokyo Journal! Not to mention Tokyo's top bachelor.

"Forgot so easily? It has not been long for you." she frowned at his words. Had she been rescued only to be left with this crazy man?

At first, what she saw, she was sure that it was the trick of the rain. But as she continued to look into his eyes, she could not deny it: they had turned gold. A very no human gold. And then she felt it. His aura. She had felt so many time's in the past, most always it brought fear. The last time she had been around him it had even brought a bit of reassurance, this time it brought pure shock and confusion.

This was Sesshoumaru's aura she was feeling. Those were his eyes she was looking into. She continued looking at them, speechless, until they changed back to hazel and his youkai aura was pulled back. "You...your the CEO of Tokyo Journal." she managed to get out. The rain was making her shiver and her head was pounding horribly at this point. Maybe she was really passed out and this was a dream.

The man who was Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow to her. "Yes. Is that all?" she shook her head slightly.

"I don't know-"

Her sentence was cut off as the man turned and Kagome looked around him to see that a third person had appeared before the two. It was a female judging by the blond/brown hair that rain from underneath her silver clock. The rain had stopped completely and the women pulled her clock from her head to revel two silver eyes.

"It has been most difficult to get the two of you to meet." Kagome suddenly realized that she had no more pain- it was gone. "Yes, Kagome dear. In my presence you wont feel the pain, the rain won't rain, and you Sesshoumaru will have your true form." Kagome glanced over to see the silver haired Sesshoumaru that had pushed her down the well three years ago. "To any passer by, they will only see a car parked in an alley."

"What about my car?" Kagome let the question slip from her mouth before thinking about how strange it was for her to ask considering everything that had just taken place and was still taking place. The women laughed.

"No one will get your car, my dear. It is as if you are frozen in time." Kagome took a few steps closer to were she was standing by Sesshoumaru's side.

"What is the meaning of this?" The familiar cold and distance voice spoke and the women turned with a smile on her face to Sesshoumaru.

"To the point as ever? My Lord?" The youkai said nothing and Kagome swallowed hard and cleared her throat.

"You said it was hard to get us to meet?" She asked and the women clapped her hands together and nodded.

"Oh yes it has! Goodness three years and the two of you never met! And he has known you were here since you moved into to that apartment!!" Kagome looked at Sesshoumaru who displayed no emotion and only continued looking at the silver-eyed women.

"Why would you want use to meet? Who are you?" Kagome asked, realizing that Sesshoumaru would be of no help. Distantly she thought that the Sesshoumaru of 500 hundred years ago would have been demanding answers...well maybe not. She hadn't really known him at all.

The women smiled at the question. "I am the keeper of time. And although I am not human, it is nice to come speak to you'll in the body of one. I cannot seem to change my eyes color though!!" Kagome stared dumbfound not really able to reply to such a statement. "Anyway, I have come to you two because there is a grave matter to discuss concerning the two of you."

"And what would that be?" Sesshoumaru finally spoke.

"Kagome, what happened to you three years ago, and for Sesshoumaru nearly five years ago; you messed up a great deal!" Sesshoumaru said nothing and Kagome wondered if he remembered. She was sure she knew of what the women spoke. "Kagome when you fell through the well, the jewel slipped through your hand and split in half. Since you let go while the well pulled you through time, the halves fell into two different times. It is creating havoc in these times! It must be retrieved immediately."

Kagome felt her heart drop as she realized what the woman was asking; at least she could guess as much. "No...I will not do it. I am finally moving on..." her voice was soft and tears were forming in her eyes. The women looked very sad and only dipped her head.

"I understand your heart ache. But this can not be avoided." she now turned to Sesshoumaru. "You know all about the well after your research. You must go with Kagome and retrieve the jewel, since it was as much as your fault. Besides, she will be needing help."

"I don't see why it has to be done at all." The youkai replied and the women smiled.

"You are well aware of what is happening with the youkai in this time, Sesshoumaru. As you suspected, the jewel is the only thing to defeat the threat. If you do not retrieve it, the outcome will be horrible. For starters, history will be changed. Don't you remember the story your father told you? About the youkai and miko who traveled together?" Kagome watched Sesshoumaru carefully and saw his eyes widened and the women laughed. "That story is of you and Kagome."

"What story?" Kagome interrupted and the women looked about to her. "I cannot hold time all day and explain, my dear. Sesshoumaru will have to tell you." The women then became very serious and pulled the cloak back over her head. "The choice in the end, is yours, but you to have done great damage and the longer you pros pone going, the harder the task will be. Since it took so long for you two to meet again, the jewel as been spread through time for three years, and will be harder to find."

"When you'll go to the well- and it will only work if you'll go together. The first jump, by my power, will take you a time where a piece of the jewel remains. The well will only work if you jump through with the recovered part of the jewel. It will take you to the second half of the jewel. When the jewel is complete, it will take you to this time. Sesshoumaru, use the tale your father told you as a reference. The rest is up to you two now. Good luck, and I'm sorry Kagome but your pain will come back as soon as I leave." She smiled underneath the hood. "Which is now."

Like she said, Kagome immediately felt the pain in her head and her side. She was still bleeding from her head. The rain fell down just as hard as it was before the women came. She turned to see that Sesshoumaru looked human once again and was starting at the spot that the women had once been. She tried hard to ask him a question but her words came out in a jumble. Her vision began to fade and she could see that hazel eyes were now looking at her. She tried hard to say something, but it was all in vain.

All went black.

This chapter was a little short but im just getting things going. I actually have up to chapter six of this story- it just needs to be editted.

Let me know what you'll think:]