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Last chapter. Thank you for all your support and all your love and all your reviews. I can't tell you how happy they made me and how happy I am you all guilt tripped me into finishing my fics. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

All the love in my heart,

Sombra112

Chapter 23: Tale As Old As Time

Rin had to stop, she had to.

She leaned against the wall in the daisy room, panting.

She had fought, hard, and run all the way here up a flight of stairs and down the dark halls. All while being so tired she was sure that she would collapse any minute.

It was an overpowering exhaustion, she just wanted so badly to sleep. The bed in the daisy room called to her in a siren's song so sweet she wasn't sure she could resist it.

Her heart was beating rapidly and a bit off beat from her mind forcing her body to not fall asleep. But each time she blinked, she risked not opening her eyes again. She had to move forward, but her head was light and her muscles were getting weaker.

The only reason she could push herself off the door and out of the daisy room was the knowledge that Sesshomaru waited for her.

XXXXXXXXX

Inuyasha grunted in pain when Kagome slammed him against the outer wall again and again.

"Let go!" she snarled, doing it again.

"No!" he shouted, digging his claws into his own arms, his blood streaming down both of them, to keep from loosening his grip and letting her slip through.

"You beast!" Kagome cried, thrashing, twisting, trying to escape his clutches.

He was winning and he hadn't laid a single blow on her. That alone was more infuriating than anything.

"I love you, Kagome." Inuyasha smiled through the aching in his head from being slammed into the stone. "I'm not letting go. Ever."

"I'll kill you!" she swore snapping her jaws ineffectively.

"Remember who you are, Kagome." Inuyasha begged. "Remember the girl you are. The sweet, kind girl. You who would do anything for those you served, for those you loved. That's the you you are. Not this, Kagome."

Kagome howled, a desperate howl of a trapped animal that echoed through the castle grounds and forest lands.

Thunder rocked the ground and lightning split the sky as the heavens opened and water poured down.

She wasn't trying to hurt him anymore, she was just thrashing about, trying to get away from him.

Inuyasha's tears blended with the rain on his face as the woman he loved did everything she could to get away from him.

Her howls echoed deep in his bones, his heart, his soul. Tortured screams, pain filled cries. It was a sound he had missed being away from the castle, a sound he had hoped never to hear, and a sound he now couldn't separate from.

XXXXXXXXX

Shippo turned and looked back towards the castle. He knew that sound. He spent days quivering, but not hiding, from it as it came from his adoptive mother's mouth.

He knew he had to run, Rin ordered him to run and as the master's woman, she had authority over him.

But the castle was his home. And the people there, even the demented, evil ones, were his family.

Shippo hadn't grown in many, many decades. His mind, his body, his emotions had never matured.

But at that moment, he knew that he couldn't just follow orders. Sometimes, a person had to act on their own based on what they thought was right.

He appolized silently to Rin for disobeying her, and ran as fast as his tiny legs could carry him back to where he really belonged.

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Rin's legs ran forward, her body refusing to give in. Even as she bit her lip, drawing blood from the force of it, she could feel her limbs getting lighter. Like the exhaustion was leaving her.

Maybe that was it. Maybe her transformation was over. Maybe she was finally a demon.

But she didn't feel any stronger.

In fact, she felt like she was running slower. The corridors were getting darker, the sounds around her less clear, the pan in her hand getting heavier.

But she didn't care at the moment.

He was down there.

He was waiting.

XXXXXXXXX

"Good bye, my lord." Kouga sneered at the pathetic prince before him. He savored for just a moment, the victory he was about to taste. The destruction of all that he hated. Behind him, he felt the support of the demons the great prince once commanded.

He swung down with a laugh of triumph.

CLANG!

His sword was knocked out of the way by one side swing of a...

Frying pan?

"Ah, little Rin, right?" Kouga smirked at her. "I remember you."

Rin glared up at Kouga, her hands trembling in fear.

"Rin." Sesshomaru said, lifting his head a bit, not without effort.

Rin was panting and she held the pan like it was a sword and faced Kouga, trying to be as brave as Sesshomaru was.

"Get. Out." she said with all the force she could muster. She didn't really have much of a hope of stopping them, but she had to do something. "You are not welcome here. The master banished you from the castle."

Kouga laughed. "You think you can beat us all?"

"No." Rin said, stepping in front of Sesshomaru. "But I can die trying."

"No!" Sesshomaru barked with all the power he could muster.

But Rin didn't move. She would do anything to keep her lord healthy and happy. Even if that meant sometimes doing what he didn't want her to do.

"This will be interesting." Kouga said lifting his sword and striking.

Rin parried the first attack and dodged the second.

But she felt weaker than she did before. Not tired. No, her sleepiness was disipaiting. Just...weaker. Like her own body was heavier than it had been only moments before.

Kouga sliced once, twice, knocked the pan from her hands and it clanged away on the marble surface.

Then the point was at her neck and Rin was defenseless.

"You lose, little Rin." Kouga said. "And both you and your precious prince will die."

"NO!" Sesshomaru jumped up and tackled Kouga to the floor.

Kouga grunted as they hit the floor and the sword skitted away.

Rin jumped after it just as a familiar ghost demon did.

The demon reached it first and Rin dodged just in time to avoid getting her hand cut off.

Kouga and Seshsomaru were rolling around on the ground, grunting, punching, and clawing where they could. The watching demons snarled, hissed, chittered, growled as they stared.

The ghost like lady demon was slower than Kouga, Rin was able to back up, avoiding the swings of the weapon.

"Kill them!"

"Kill them!"

"KILL THEM!" echoed a thousand times all around them as they moved.

Rin tripped, cried out, over her frying pan and landed hard on the floor just as Kouga was thrown bodily from Sesshomaru.

The ghost lady demon made to hack off Rin's head, but collapsed with Sesshomaru's claws on her back.

"My lord!" Rin climbed to her feet and grabbed onto him, supporting his weight, as his muscles again started to give from overexhaustion.

A snide, dark laughter drew their gaze to Kouga was picking himself off the ground, wiping the blood from his lip.

"Not bad, prince." he said, getting to his feet. He turned his head from side to side, popping his neck. "But I don't think you have it in you to do that again."

He held up his claws, smirking at the incoming victoy.

He shot forward like an arrow from a bow.

Rin grunted and pushed Sesshomaru from her.

Sesshomaru cried out, a wordless howl of pain.

Rin flinched.

Kouga screamed his victory.

The room exploded in light.

"Until you can learn to love another, and earn her love in return, you shall remain cursed."

The words rang in the air.

They weren't hissed in anger or screaming in pain. It was more like the whisper of a memory.

Rin felt...warm.

She opened her eyes to a whole other world.

The dark castle around her, the gloomy, depressing, pain filled castle, was bright.

The gray marble was white, the red rug was green. The paintings on the wall were no longer grotesque, they were glorious.

And Kouga in front of her was certainly not part wolf.

The obviously human man blinked in confusion and, slowly, lowered his claw free hand.

The demons behind him looked in wonder at their hands, their bodies, their fang free smiled breaking out slowly on each face as realization came over them.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Kagome was breathing hard, her body exhausted.

Inuyasha's arms were still around her but she wasn't fighting them anymore.

"Inu...yasha..." she whispered in disbelief.

She looked up at the sky, the clouds were gone now and, in their place, sunshine shone down on the courtyard full of...

Humans.

Inuyasha released his grip on his own arms, his bloody fingers leaving his pain filled forarms.

Kagome turned to him, her brown eyes shining.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome said, so much spoken to him in that single word.

Inuyasha looked in amazement at his clawless hands as the wind blew his black hair around his face.

"Kagome?"

They both turned to see a ginger headed child walking into the palace courtyard, his clothes too small for his body which was suddenly that of an average four year old human.

"Shippo." Kagome felt tears in her eyes at seeing the boy that had been her child for so long suddenly free.

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Ayame groaned as she sat up. The wound in her side that had bled out was gone. She felt heavy, so heavy.

She held up her in hand in awe as she realized what was missing from it.

"Ayame?"

She looked over to see friends, her old friends, converging on her, offering her a hand to help her up.

And tears fell from her eyes.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Sesshomaru." Rin turned and almost didn't recognize the man who pulled himself up from the ground.

His hair, once so silver, was pitch black. And his eyes, so bright gold, were like a stormy sky.

The great prince stood, looking at himself in wonder, in disbelief.

He looked over at her and Rin almost didn't believe it was him.

But that look in his eye, that look that he reserved just for her, was exactly the same. And that overpowering presense of his was back.

It really was him!

Rin ran forward and threw herself into his human arms.

"I love you, my lord." Rin said to him, smiling so hard he cheeks hurt.

And the humans around them cheered in joy, in love, in freedom.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Good morning, Rin." Kagome smiled as she walked into her queen's sitting room.

Rin smiled at her old friend, turning her attention away from the window.

The castle was gleaming now with a full staff to attend it. The grounds were more beautiful than she could ever make them and the poeple were rejoicing in the return of their humanity.

Kagome and Inuyasha had married as soon as they could, happy to be joined together at long last. And Kagome was already heavy with child. An event both of them had looked forward to for the longest time.

Shippo's family, unfortunately, hadn't survived the decades in the forest. Something that the strangely intelligent four year old took very well. His mind was growing so fast these days, it was a wonder to behold. Then again, it wasn't so surprising considering he had had a very long time to learn.

Rin's family had marveled at the changes in Rin's new family and had a much easier time accepting them as humans, a fact none of the former demons held against them. Eri and Claude stayed in the village by the sea, insisting that the sea was where they belonged. Yumi, however, moved to the castle with Rin and was busy enjoying life to its fullest.

Her father also moved into the palace and was on the way back to perfect health with the care the palace doctors and servants gave him.

And Rin, she was the happiest woman in the world.

Sesshomaru was a great king, a great ruler. The country was back, not to its former glory, but coming back. As Rin understood it, the main trade now was timber. The untouched, centuries old forest giving lots of it as people cut it back to make homes, recreate the lost city. They weren't worried about it, there was so many, many miles of it unexplored for so long. And, honestly, it wasn't the happiest memory they had.

"Good morning, Kagome." Rin beamed at the new princess.

"The mas...His Majesty would like to see you." Kagome corrected herself. 'master' was what he was, not what he is. "He's in the ballroom."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rin opened the ballroom and stepped inside, looking around for the first time ever.

The ballroom was glorious.

Three long chandeliers hung down from the ceiling, the delicate crystal glinting in the sunlight from the high windows on either side of the room.

"Do you like it?"

Rin turned back towards the door as Sesshomaru stepped forward from the wall.

"It's beautiful." she said, looking back around.

She saw no hole in any of the four perfect walls. It had been restored to its former glory.

"We're to hold a ball here." Sesshomaru said. "Our people requested it to celebrate the lifting of the curse."

"A ball sounds like a wonderful idea." Rin said walking into his arms. "Are you happy, my lord?"

"I am." he nodded once, though he didn't smile Rin believed him. Sesshomaru didn't lie.

"Do you love me, my lord?"

He nodded once. "I do."

"Tell me." Rin said, beaming.

Sesshomaru considered the request for a moment before saying, without regret or reservations, "I love you, Rin.