With You (AAA), Imagine, The Game Has Changed,

Welcome to my sequel project! Sadly, unlike Restoring the Wind this story has NOT been completed yet but will still be updated four times a week on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If you haven't read RtW then I'd recommend going back and doing so, and for those of you have read- welcome back!

UPDATE: Read my bottom AN here, please and thank-you!

On with the story!

To Make Things Right

Twelve Years

Twelve years! It was too long! Too very, very long!

"Quickly! Add more reinforcement to the doors!" Red light, black shadows and green gas were everything Jaken could see, the imp rapidly calling out orders to the milling crowd of demon servants. "Are you listening, fools! ? If she gets through that gate then we're all doomed!"

The sound of Lady Inukimi's transformed paws blasting the palace doors had faded a few minutes ago, followed only by the sickening green miasma the female Dog Demon had exhaled all over the doors of her son's palace. Lord Sesshoumaru's castle was hidden in the mists of a high mountain: no human could ever climb far enough to reach the road that led up through several heavily defended gates, but the Lord's mother had already demolished five of them, and this was the last one before the demonic barriers protecting the estate would crumble.

It had only been months into Lord Sesshoumaru's absence when the Lady of the Northern Mountains had decided enough was enough waiting for her son to return. She wanted his lands, they'd been hers when he was still a pup and the Inu no Taishou had shared them: Lord Sesshoumaru didn't share with anyone! And if she couldn't have them, then now that he was dead that meant no one else could either! The gardens that took up the entire upper-half of the mountain were dead from years of suffering her wind-swept acid. The almost constant sunshine blotted out by inky mist that coated everything in a sick black film; usually the palace was so high on its mountain peak that it was just sunshine and a sea of clouds across every horizon, but not anymore.

Jaken dared to look out at those clouds now, the brown-robed vizier barely tall enough to see through the small rampart at the top of the estate wall. His green three-fingered hands were twisting the Staff of Two Heads nervously around in circles, threatening to wear a hole in the hot stones shifting under his narrow feet. Jaken didn't know what kind of look was in his wide yellow eyes, but he couldn't stop all the nervous ticks and twitches wracking his tiny body.

He could see Lady Inukimi, but the old enchantments from the General's day, though weakened, still held against her. Even when the great hound opened her salivating jaws in his direction, and Jaken fell back to avoid the geyser of toxic waste that spewed out, it never actually reached him.

Lady Inukimi's true form was smaller than her son's had been, more slender, feminine, with one curled fuchsia mark on each cheek instead of the two slashes Lord Sesshoumaru had worn. But she was faster than her son had been, outstripping his already blinding speed, and attacking with toxins and gas that, although Jaken should have known better, he was convinced were more potent than Sesshoumaru's had been.

"Master Jaken!"

"Something's caught her attention." He mused, speaking out-loud to himself and holding one sleeve up over his long beak to keep the fumes of melted rock and blasted soil from making him weak. "Lady Inukimi's stopped attacking for some reason..." Maybe, maybe something was going to attack? Like maybe Lord Sesshoumaru!

It was... a meek hope, a tender wish that had been crushed too many times. Jaken couldn't even dare to breathe the words lest the demons under his borrowed authority dropped what they were doing and fled like cowards. Jaken had been left in control of Lord Sesshoumaru's estate twelve years ago after the intense damage done to the palace, but no one had ever expected that the Lord would be gone this long. It had taken all these years for anyone to even accept that, maybe, he might actually be dead.

Lord Sesshoumaru had been very distracted before he finally left the estate after the storm, lingering within the partially demolished complex for two tense months before alighting off to see to the rest of his lands. The Kamikaze that had torn across the known world twelve years ago had obliterated the eastern side of the palace, a shock to all who served the Demon Lord. It had been a terrible storm, unleashed by the gods and wreaking untold havoc for demon and human alike.

Leaving the first time hadn't calmed him though, not even after word reached the estate that Lord Sesshoumaru had demolished the heads of several large demon clans in the area bordering on his territory: his last expansion. Lord Sesshoumaru had in fact come back to the palace once the conquest was over, something that never happened, and he had become extremely withdrawn. Not even a visit to Rin had improved his mood...

And after that he'd vanished... It was only a year later when Lady Inukimi launched her first attack.

"Master-"

"I can hear you, fool! Speak up already!" Turning and drumming the Nintoujou's narrow end on the stone underfoot, Jaken hollered at the servant-turned-soldier who kept yelling at him. "Is that ash! ? Whose lighting fires with-"

"Master Jaken, Ryokijin has returned!"

"What! ?" No! Not again! This was impossible!

"He's overwhelmed the northern gate, the fires have already reached the palace!" Jaken didn't have any words, just let his yellow eyes move away from the babbling tanuki and up along the mountain's peak, over the spoiled gardens and past the obliterated outer buildings. There, from the very top of the mountain; in the night he couldn't see the palace structure, but the black clouds billowing into the sky and the red light tinting them told him enough.

"Open the gates!" He shouted, and he felt a tight, constricting pain run through his tiny body. "Open the gates! Retreat! Run away!" Open them up and let Inukimi fight Ryokijin for the mountain, there was no way Jaken could defend it any longer. Even before he gave the cry to retreat, he saw demons scaling the walls and jumping over, taking to the air and earth to escape.

"Ah-Un!" Through the chaos the two headed dragon was the only demon he actually recognized, but Jaken had to stay where he was for now. Crouching down over the gate, the doors were cranked and pulled open; the Dog Demon outside pulling her long pink lips back over her teeth like a sick grin. A burst of green miasma that corroded the stones under Jaken's feet and sent a noxious burst into his face signalled the she-demon's arrival to the estate, and the speed with which she passed meant she'd already picked up on the scent of the Phoenix Lord terrorizing the upper reaches of the palace. If Jakenlistened, then even now he could hear the flaming bird shattering timbers and decimating walkways.

"Quickly, Ah-Un, we have to go!" The two-headed dragon landed next to him with a heavy thud, Ah's head hanging low, eyes not completely open, as Un growled behind its muzzle and lowered one flank trying to bear its other half's weight. Jaken scrambled up onto the black and red saddle, gripping the leather straps and reins as he clung to his precious staff with one hand so it wouldn't fall. "C'mon, you two! Lets go!"

Ah-Un reared back and launched itself into the sky, and Jaken hung on as the heat of the inferno chased all three of them off and into the east.

The Western Lands had fallen...

Twelve years. It was a long time, and had required that he make some serious adjustments to his living arrangements.

There weren't many caves around Inuyasha's village, but Totosai had been determined to find someplace subterranean and sound to set up shop and ply his trade. The prime location was out of the question. Onigumo's cave had nearby water, thick rock walls, and a lot of depth and demonic remains... but as the monk put it: too much bad karma. The last thing the sword-smith wanted was to be responsible for forging the next Sou'unga by accident...

His lovely volcanic home was no longer an option, not after the Phoenix tribe moved in from the north and began wreaking havoc across the crumbling Western Lands several long years ago. There was a difference between being a demon in a Lord's lands, and being a Lord's servant, and Totosai had lived as both kinds. He had never felt enough respect for Sesshoumaru as a Demon Lord (it took him over two hundred years just to figure out the Tenseiga after all!) to become a devoted subject, but had loyally served the Inu no Taishou centuries before. Maybe, if Sesshoumaru had not vanished so suddenly, if he had been present to fight against and curb the influx of phoenixes from the north, Totosai could have seen himself properly aligning himself with the Demon Lord.

'After all, he's your son, isn't he? I don't bear Inuyasha any ill will, but he'll never try and become the Western Lord, and even if he did, we both know he probably wouldn't succeed.' It took a certain kind of character to become a proper Demon Lord. It took a strong, selfish heart to ruthlessly destroy so many opponents. It required endless pride and very finite patience to go into battle over and over again, since it was usually for the most petty reasons. The old General had been a cruel soul when it came to land and conquest, his eldest son had been no better, but the younger held too much compassion.

Fighting was common between Demon Lords, or between them and rowdy lesser demons, but complete chaos and war was something altogether different. It was the sort of instability that forced every weapon smith to be extra-cautious about who he made what for. Four times already in the last year it had been necessary for Totosai and Mo-Mo to abandon their new home and run into the village for Inuyasha's help with moody clients. The smith was kept busy making blades designed to deflate unearned pride and instill proper, powerful virtues in their masters before they could be of any real use. This risky business was why he had come to Inuyasha, six years ago, doing everything save physically beat an understanding of his brother's death into the Half-breed.

Sesshoumaru was dead, he had to be. There was war in the Western Lands and such a vain, selfish, arrogant Demon Lord as the General's eldest son would never have stood for such a travesty. Inuyasha had held out for over six long years waiting for Sesshoumaru to magically reappear from the ether, refusing refugees, rejecting alliances with other lesser Demon Lords, and generally sitting on his hands doing nothing.

Kagome had never pushed him to do anything either, too cautious about some young human girl named Rin that Totosai had absolutely no interest in protecting. He'd been shouted at by the priestess for being callous, but the smith had flatly told the younger girl to grow up and get married. Tenseiga had been six-years broken, Bakusaiga six-years silent, and both swords had resonated with such incredible fear (which was okay for Tenseiga since it represented the fears of a father, but Bakusaiga was Sesshoumaru himself!) that if the Demon Lord hadn't fled whatever battle he had been losing, then he had died.

And now, six years after he'd said it, Totosai finally had a Lesser Demon Lord to rely on whenever those phoenixes got too close to Inuyasha's forests and mountains. The Half-breed's little pocket of influence had grown into a territory most humans would have been proud to call their own, and he had alliances and agreements with other demons of similar rank to help defend the eastern frontier. Let the fire birds and northern demons spill down into Sesshoumaru's abandoned lands: those human villages and lesser demon tribes weren't worth running out to protect.

And neither was poor old Totosai's poor old volcano...

This cliff-side cave was not the best place, but he had hollowed out a large portion of the fragile grey slate to find the bedrock underneath. The high ceilings gave the smog and fumes someplace to go as he forged demon bones, steel, and even stone and other minerals together to create numerous kinds of weapons. Swords were his speciality, but were only for the most noteworthy of clients. Only those who could impress Totosai earned a sword.

'Or those who inherit one. Both of your boys grew into their weapons and became very powerful, old friend, but you know that if you'd left it up to me I would never have trusted either of them.'Which would probably have gotten them all killed, yes, yes, he knew that. Naraku and phoenixes and plain-old bad luck... 'But you were right, especially about the older boy...' But that was difficult to think about, it was uncomfortable knowing that the son of an old, dear friend had left this world without just cause.

'If he was going to die then Sesshoumaru should have done it in his lands, fighting and defending them where he would be known and remembered. Instead he was off who-knows-where fighting for who-knows-what and not coming home.' The steady clang of his hammer over folded steel was soothing, but not enough so with such troubling thoughts floating around in his mind. 'You were at peace for such a short time, and then all of this happened in your territory. Sesshoumaru was too young.'

That thought made him stop, Totosai looking down at the glowing metal in front of him and sighing softly. Too much melancholy, he was going to poison the materials if he kept on like this. Hammering out the proper shape for a great halberd head, Totosai let the metal cool after that, padding over to a small pool of water and splashing off his face and arms with it, washing off the soot in the dirty water before climbing out into the sunlight.

His little grey cliff faced the forest, with Inuyasha's village just beyond and down the line of the land. It was all green trees and blue sky, happy, cheerful, beautiful even...

But the thought wouldn't leave him alone; Sesshoumaru was too young. He had been too young to be Demon Lord when his father died, it was what had made him so incredibly cold and dead inside. Totosai and Myoga had known Sesshoumaru as a pup, and he had changed too much too fast as a youth following the General's death.

'He was never happy, or sweet, or even innocent when he was small, but that was good: nice dogs die young.' No, Sesshoumaru had always been proud; pride kept you alive, made you work hard, it let you hide your wounds and never give the enemy a reason to think they might have a chance. 'But he was curious, and he was good. I remember he wanted to know everything you had to tell or teach, and that was why you liked him. That relationship was why he went and asked you for Sou'unga instead of just attacking once your back was turned. He was the right age to begin challenging you, but then, old friend, things happened.' Things happened and his father had been traded for a half-brother...

Two hundred years ago, Totosai remembered, the Western Lands had suffered almost as much as they were right now. The Inu no Taishou had amassed incredible stretches of land and mountain, at one point even threatening to reach over the Western Sea to answer the moth demons creeping over from across the water. When he died, Lady Inukimi had reclaimed most of her northern territories, the ones she had shared with her mate and young son. Sesshoumaru had not been old enough to fight his own mother, not then, and the only reason she had not killed him was because of the blood between them.

'But he had the selfish heart, and the endless pride, and the finite patience. And we both know he never lost a fight again after Inukimi, not until Inuyasha unleashed the Tetseiga on him the first time and the Wind Scar soon after that.' And yes, there had been other fights after that; stalemates and draws and interrupted duels, but Sesshoumaru had only truly and undeniably lost those three battles in his entire life- not... counting the fourth one, of course... 'He had just begun to truly mature when he died, friend. Why wasn't your warning enough to keep him alive..?'

The dead don't like to answer questions, but the living still like to ask them. The old sword-smith gave a sigh as he lifted a gnarled hand up to scratch his bare cranium with his claws, shaking his head quickly as he felt a shiver run down his spine. The sun was setting far in the west, bathing the half-hidden village in orange light. The smith felt another shiver, colder this time, and stood up from where he'd been crouched in the opening to his cave.

Then there was another cold burst down his spine, and as he blinked his massive eyes twice Totosai's pointed ears gave a fast twitch. That sound... that sound, he-!

"Bakusaiga?" Turning around and digging his claws into the slate-grey stone, Totosai got his feet in on the action too as the demon started pulling himself up the rock. Up, up, up! All the way until he was standing on the cliff's top and was able to peer far into the western light. "Speak up, Bakusaiga! I can almost hear you!" Almost hear it, as he hadn't been able to for almost twelve years.

He could remember the day when the Tenseiga and Bakusaiga had left, their quiet, constant resonance cut down to a bare mumble as they were carried much too far away. This hadn't concerned Totosai at first; Demon Lords were wont to get up and travel sometimes. He had only become worried a few days later, when he heard the screams of fear and agony from the pair. Tenseiga had been broken, and suddenly, and Bakusaiga had screamed with fear that could only echo the emotions of its true master. After that the two had been almost silent, the broken sword unable to spare more than a whimper, while the killing blade had only pined forlornly in the darkness, someplace cold, somewhere alone.

The smith could only sometimes, rarely, catch the echo of the swords' pain in the air. Echoes and whines, weak memories of sound and sensation. So this was something new, right now, this was something good.

Totosai scrambled back down into his cave, quickly re-emerging with a half-dozen unfinished sword blades and several other metal rods and demon bones. Climbing back up onto the cliff he stuck each one into the ground, watching and listening as he formed a large circle and let the other half-made weapons resonate with the cries of their far-off brethren.

"Bakusaiga, Tenseiga, I can hear you..." Hear the voices, not the words. He could sense their natures, not understand their plight. Totosai could also feel his bulbous eyes burning as he stared into the setting sun, but refused to blink or move. Mo-Mo was silent and attentive, the cow flying up from the grasses below to observe what was happening, but she remained utterly without sound beyond the noise of landing on the pebbled ground. If it was quiet then he could listen, if he could hear them then... maybe...

The final rays of the sun dipped down over the horizon, until there was just one left and it gave a brief flare. Instead of fading after that, Totosai stood there and felt the light continue to shine over his face and into his eyes, watching the images form in front of him as a vision- wait, no.

That wasn't sunlight.

"Sesshoumaru, come back..." He whispered the words hoarsely, his throat tight around the sounds and his tongue thick as the yellow light began to turn red, and Totosai's bare feet scratched against the dry ground. "Bakusaiga swears by your life, so for the love of Kami, boy, come back... Mo-Mo!" He could feel something now, sense it coming and recognized the speed: he knew that heat.

Mo-Mo bellowed and trotted up behind him, Totosai abandoning the incomplete weapons in the ground as he scrambled onto the cow's back. By the time he was up and urging Mo-Mo for height and speed, the old smith could look back towards the west and see something that rivalled the earlier sunset. It was a carpet of red fire, heat spilling over the hills and dips of the land, incinerating the standing trees that marked the end of Inuyasha's small domain. Geysers of steam fired into the air where springs and rivers met the inferno.

And flying above and ahead of all this, causing it, was the great wing-span and massive red body of Ryokijin; the Phoenix Lord.

"Fly Mo-Mo! Fly now!"

IF YOU'VE BEEN READING THIS STORY ALREADY PLEASE READ THIS PART HERE OKAY?

July 24th: Alright! I've published up to chapter 21, which is officially the close of the Second story arc. Depending on where you want to draw the line there are either 1 or 2 more to come and SUNNY IS WORKING ON THEM.

As of the 24th (this update), I have finished chapter 22, but 23 is fighting with me. I'd ideally like to complete up to at LEAST 26 before I start publishing again, but the ultimate goal would be to have the next ARC done from start to finish, which might be anywhere from 30 to 32. Bear with me please! I can do this, I just need to hit my stride again and hopefully once I finish my course (Final is on the 28th so bleh. Poetry.) I'll be able to manage it. I've got a great playlist and a happy summer schedule to work with.

Thanks for reading, leave a review below!