This is a sequel to my first story, The Little Blue Shell and the Bone Eater's Well. You need not read the other before this one to understand the story but it does help.

I had planned to post this in chapters and had gotten two up, but I guess I just prefer the idea of my stories being posted in one lump sum. So here it is.

Note: The word Gwyllgi will pop up in this story. It is pronounced Gwish-gee, Both Gs sound like the G in gum. A Gwyllgi is known by many, many names. If you like to know more, go here… .org/wiki/Black_dog_(ghost)

Maria Enganxa is a character who will appear. She's a figure in Catalan mythology. If you'd like to know more about her visit… .org/wiki/Aloja_(mythology)

Please review and tell me what you think. I find so much inspiration in your opinions, they make me want to write more.

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Inuyasha characters.

A Little Trust and a Tiny Blade

It was unproductive and something deep within him knew it.

Anyone else would have used the word "silly".

The very idea that he'd visit this place searching.

For what?

For some part of him he'd left behind? Had he lost something? No, that was absurd. He told himself that it was out of curiosity and nothing more. Curiosity was a commendable thing. Curiosity led to discovery and knowledge.

He did not lose things… Not really.

"Lord Sesshoumaru?"

He turned as fluidly as a cool breeze on a still day, the sheen of his long silver hair fanning momentarily.

He was tall and ornate. Elegant and dangerous. A ghost in daylight. His stance was hardly ever anything other than confident. The delicately pointed ears, the markings on his face, the crescent moon on his forehead and two stripes on each cheek, made it obvious that he was something beautiful… to be avoided.

"Hm," he responded.

"She's not here,"

"Mm,"

"Where is she?"

"We do not seek her."

"So why do we keep coming back?"

His amber eyes studied the little girl at his side. Her tiny hands gripped the lip of the old well as she stood on tiptoes to see over the edge and down into its black depth. She tilted her round face, bright in the setting autumn sunlight, upward toward him.

The child didn't care.

This little human girl understood full well what he was, a powerful dog demon. And she'd seen the destruction he could inflict… she'd seen him kill over and over. She'd even watched him kill her own kind. But to her all of that was unimportant. She loved and admired him no matter what he may be. For to the world he may be one thing, but to her he was everything. Her surrogate father, her teacher, her guardian...

"I like Kagome." She said before Sesshoumaru had a chance to answer her question. The child's face lit with a brilliant smile as she turned from the well and took hold of his empty left sleeve. "I think she's very nice."

"… Come, Rin." He said as he and began to walk away.

Something far… Something…

Sesshoumaru stopped. His keen ears suddenly focused solely on the well.

What was that? What had he heard? It was impossibly distant... and yet…

"What is it, Lord Sesshoumaru? Is Kagome coming back again?"

"No," he said smoothly.

There is was again. A voice?

He stepped closer to the well… listening.

"Child…" he heard faintly, "A child do I hear?" It echoed and cooed from deep within its incomprehensible depths. The hole in time. "Is that the voice of a youth at my door? Little one, come closer." Was it talking to his companion?

"Rin, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" she asked still gripping his sleeve.

"Young one, come closer. Come closer and let me see. Let me see you, child…"

"Wait… I can hear something. A voice… A mother singing… My mother?" Rin took a few hesitant steps toward the well, one tiny hand reached out toward it, the other fastened tightly to his sleeve. One side of her heart longed to see once more the face of her own mother… the other fiercely clung to the monster that protected her.

"It is not singing." Sesshoumaru told her. "It spoke only."

"Step on, step closer. You are a girl? Lovely little girl… Young little girl…" it said like silk.

"It is! I can hear it. Mother is singing to me. She's singing of how she misses me!"

Sesshoumaru's eyes shifted from his little ward to the well just as her fingertips came to rest on its lip.

With a sudden rush, as a wave turning a ship, a dark aura swept up and out of the well.

In that very heartbeat, the dog lord had scooped his ward into the safety of his arm and crossed away to the edge of the clearing where he set her down and drew his sword.

But just as fast as it had been… it had gone. There was no power lingering… no scent… nothing.

He sheathed his sword again and focused his ears on the well, but all he could hear were the sobs of the child. His first inclination was to tell her to be silent. But...

He knelt before her.

Rin covered her face with her sleeves.

"Are you hurt?" he asked without emotion.

"No… I… I heard my mother." She struggled to say.

"It was not your mother."

She looked up at him with large, frightened and tear filled eyes.

"My… mother's been dead… for a while." She almost whispered.

"Hm," he said with a small nod.

"I thought I saw her shadow… I thought I saw her… There was a hook."

"A hook,"

"In her hand… It wasn't her though?"

"No,"

She held out her hands and the dog demon leaned forward just a little so she could wrap her arms around his neck. He stood, cradling her in the crook of his arm and looked back toward the well.

He wondered…

This was the miko's way of traveling between worlds. Would Kagome be safe were she to travel through it unaware of what had just happened? It really shouldn't be any of his concern. What did he care of humans… other than Rin, of course. But Kagome and her family had saved his life a few months back.

Did he owe them for that? Did it matter?

Sesshoumaru turned his eyes toward the forest.

…

He could sense her approaching long before she had any idea he was nearby. He would have, under any other circumstances, changed route to avoid her. But he was in all honesty looking for someone just like her and so decided against it.

She came along the narrow trail, through the darkness of the settled night, a paper lantern on a stick dimly lighting her way. It cast thin black shadows across her white face.

Sesshoumaru stopped and let her come to him. Her eyes were cast down and she seemed deep in thought as she rounded a little turn and began straight for him. No doubt her human eyes could not see as well in the dark as his and she'd not notice him for a moment longer. In the end it was not sight that made her aware of him, but rather the soft sobbing of Rin that alerted her to his presence.

"Who's there!" she suddenly cried out, swinging the little lantern up higher.

It's light fell upon him, his cold, bright eyes, silver hair and the crisp whiteness of his clothes were a sudden and stark contrast against the darkness around them. He had no reason to dress to blend in.

"L…Lord Sesshoumaru!" she stammered in surprise and took a few steps back. Her elegant brows furrowed. She was completely unarmed. What was she going to do? She'd never encountered Inuyasha's monstrous half brother alone before.

"Demon slayer." He said flatly.

"I don't think we've ever been properly introduced." Her voice was laced with distain, and yet still… unwavering. She bowed. Best to keep from insulting him. Maybe he'd just continue on and leave her be. "Sango is my name… Is she alright?" she finished looking at Rin.

The child cried softly, huddled against the ruff of fur that curled over his right shoulder.

"You are a friend of Kagome's."

"Oh, yes. I was just going to see if she'd come back yet." She explained.

"There is an evil in the well. It must be eliminated."

"An evil?" Sango said in surprise.

"Hm,"

"But Kagome…"

"Hm,"

"Will you describe it to a miko? Someone who might know what to do?" Sango asked cautiously.

He didn't say anything… but he also didn't look upset. She puzzled as to how to read his lack of expression before deciding that she had more pressing matters to concern herself with, like making sure Kagome would be alright.

"This way, please. I'll take you to Kaede."

…

The color had left the old woman's face. It took a moment for her to find her resolve and grit her teeth.

"Inuyasha's not here!" She told him stubbornly setting herself in the doorway.

"That's not why he's come, Kaede. There's something wrong at the well." Sango said quickly, afraid that the dog demon would be angered by the old miko's tone.

Sango was a talented demon slayer. That was true. But she was sure that Sesshoumaru was quite out of her league. If he were to attack she'd try her hardest, but she didn't think she'd be able to protect them from him. Not to mention her weapons were in the hut. She held her breath for a moment, waiting for one of the two of them to make the next move. She didn't have powers. Not like a miko or a demon, but with her many years of training she had picked up the ability to sense things a little more than the average human and this demon made her head spin. She'd seen him before from a distance… but, up close the feeling of his demonic aura was overwhelming.

Sango had to admit… It was thrilling.

She was a little startled when Kaede finally spoke.

"A problem with the well?"

"A dark power revealed itself for a moment and was gone." He explained shortly.

"What did it do?"

"Rin," Sesshoumaru said smoothly and turning his eyes to the child still huddled against his chest. "Explain."

"Lord Sesshoumaru… he heard it first." The little girl said, turning her face just enough to look at the lot of them out of the corner of her sad eye. "I… I didn't hear anything right away." She began, trying hard to keep her composure. "Then I heard something. I couldn't really make it out, but it grew louder and I could hear that it was my mother's voice and she was singing to me. She was singing that she wished that I'd come to her." Rin paused, "I really wanted to… but Lord Sesshoumaru reminded me that my mother is dead."

…

Kaede set a satchel of sacred items on the ground a short distance from the well. Sesshoumaru put Rin down beside it but she took hold of his sleeve and refused to let go.

He didn't argue with her.

Sango hadn't had time to change her clothes but she had grabbed her weapons.

Kaede was the first to walk to the well and peer inside.

"Do you hear anything now?" she asked him.

Sesshoumaru did not.

Sango stepped toward the well… gazing over Kaede's shoulder… and something…

"I hear it now…" Sesshoumaru told them. "It is very faint."

"Can you tell what it's saying?" Sango asked.

Sesshoumaru moved to step toward the others but Rin dug her little feet into the soft earth.

"Rin, if you will not come with me you must let me go." He told her before looking down.

"But…"

"You are not afraid of demons."

"This thing… knew what my mother sounded… and looked like."

"Be brave. You are my ward."

Her eyes narrowed for a moment before she convinced herself to release her fingers.

"I will do my best." She told him, determined to act with courage even if she may not have been feeling it at the moment.

Sesshoumaru turned his attention back toward the well, listening carefully. Other than a distant murmur all he could hear were the normal sounds of the moon lit night and Kaede's careful footfalls as she walked back toward her bag of supplies.

"I can not tell. It is very faint." he said finally answering Sango… But Sango didn't seem to hear him.

She looked curiously down to the bottom of the well, hanging her lantern over it to light the way. It looked like it always had. Dry and empty. It wasn't even that deep. Nothing to fear… right?

Why then was she so scared? Because something tugged at her heart… something so familiar.

"Father?" she whispered just under her breath. No one else would have heard it either, that is if a demon hadn't been there.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed.

"It is not." He said sharply.

"Isn't what?" Kaede asked, unaware of what had been said.

"It is. I'd never forget his voice. It's him!" Sango assured the monster, gazing into the well.

"There are only mumblings." He insisted knowing full well that his hearing was far better than any humans.

"No, it's him. He wants me to find him!" Tears began welling in her eyes.

Sesshoumaru moved to stand beside her. Still though, the noises from the well remained the same.

"It is not." He told her coldly.

A flash of anger in her eyes and she turned quickly to face the tall figure beside her. He looked down at her, his expression unchanged.

"It is!" she was just able to shout before her eyebrows shot up. She shrieked in pain just as the lantern tumbled away, turning long shadows across them all.

Sesshoumaru was unaccustomed to being startled and looked quickly for the cause of her outburst.

… There is was.

A hook at the end of a long metal shaft, sharp and dark, had bitten through her forearm. The arm that'd been holding the lantern out over the well. Clean through and out the other side. How had he not sensed it? How had he not seen it happen?

He tilted his head just a little.

It is human nature to do something. To either back away and save one's self or rush forward and save another. But Sesshoumaru was not human. He cared nothing for this little female before him. She was just another one like all the rest. She was another human that felt displeasure at his presence. She was there simply to solve a problem. So when the hook tugged downward and pulled her into the sudden wash of dark energy that in an instant filled the well, he did nothing but ponder the lack of scent curiously.

But…

"Sango!" Kaede screamed as the old woman rushed toward the forward.

The little demon slayer was a friend of Kagome's…

"That shouldn't be able to happen! Humans can't travel through the well without a piece of the Shikon jewel!" She shouted franticly before leaning over the edge of the well. "She's not there! She's not at the bottom! How can this be?"

Kagome would be displeased were she to discover that he'd let her friend be stolen away. His debt to her would be two fold. If anyone had been looking they would have found upon his face a rare, but faint, frown.

Such troublesome creatures, humans are.

His hand went quickly to Kaede's side.

As his fingers neared it he took a deep breath. He could feel its power to weaken a demon... to weaken him.

"You will watch after Rin." He spoke the words quickly as he tore the terrible little dagger she'd tucked in her waistband away. The tiny thing, a mere eight inches long, throbbed with purifying powers in his hand.

"What are you doing?" she shouted.

But what if he wasn't strong enough later to pull it back out?

Sesshoumaru plunged it into his side, just below his armor, and jumped into the well.

It'd worked before and he waited to see if it'd work again… He didn't have to wait long. The light faded and changed as his head began to throb. He sniffed at the darkness that wavered and changed around him. He could hear the murmurs again, growing louder.

There… there he caught the demon slayer's scent. She was out there, close… and blood.

A flicker of something off to one side. His vision faded out and in again.

THERE!

His hand darted toward a shadow. A ripple of cloth. He grabbed it and held fast. Sesshoumaru pulled the fabric toward himself and with it came the girl. Her eyes were closed but tears ran heavy down her cheeks. The hook pulled at her other arm drawing lines of blood with it. The shaft of the long tool faded off into the darkness beyond them both.

He yanked himself forward with the strength left in his only arm, slid past her in the emptiness of the blackened void, and took hold of the hook. His claws scraped across its implausibly cold surface as the acid that dripped from them dissolved it away. There sounded a crisp crack when it broke and the handle retreated into the nothing. Sesshoumaru yanked the remaining arc of metal from her limb, took hold of her tightly and waited for the well to deliver them to wherever it would.

Sesshoumaru was not a creature who hoped. He wondered and plotted. Experimented and discerned, but he did not hope. At that moment he fought. The pain in his side, the tightness in his chest, to stay awake. He fought the dagger's spiritual powers to weaken and eventually kill him. But if he were to remove it now… what would the well make of him? He had to wait until they'd reached the other side and the well had coughed them out.

And, as a solid surface was felt below his feet, it did.

The light flooded in as dull morning brightness. The world was cool and still.

His narrowed, amber eyes shifted from one side to the other. The ringing in his ears proved to be immensely disorientating. Then his eyes found hers and he discovered them to be open, looking up at him from where she sat on the floor of the well.

Was he sitting?

Oh, he was… Damn buzzing in his head.

His palm found the handle of the dagger in the side. His flesh burned around it and fingers fumbled over its blood-slick surface. They tightened around it but slipped off when he tried to pull it out. His weakened hand reached for the handle again but found a smaller hand set there. He looked down at his side and saw that it was hers.

"Should I…?" she didn't finish what she was going to say. She didn't have to.

"Hm," he said.

She yanked the little blade from his side in one fluid motion and a dizzying wash of strength flooded over him as his demon powers worked feverishly to restore and heal the damage the little dagger had already done. Sango thought it odd that she'd find herself in such a situation… saving the life of a demon she'd always thought of as an enemy. Always thought of as a threat to herself and her friends.

He took a deep and steady breath before he stood. Sango remained where she sat, envious of his healing ability and cradling her bleeding forearm. She watched as he seemed to analyze the air. He didn't sniff about as obviously as his half brother but she was sure that that was what was happening. Sesshoumaru was just so much more poised.

He turned back around and knelt in front of her.

"What did you hear?" he asked emotionlessly as to her surprise, he scooped her up off the floor.

"I thought I heard my father calling me," she began just before the demon hopped up and out of the well, landing smoothly on the floor above. The well seemed to be in a shelter of some sort… a shrine. "He was telling me to come to him… and though I understood full well that he's been dead for a while now, I felt compelled to believe that it was really him… and that I should find him. I felt overwhelmed by all sorts of emotions but most of all the feeling that it must be real… though I knew it was not… if that makes any sense."

"It does not."

"No… I suppose it doesn't." she agreed as he set her down. "After that I didn't hear or see anything until you came into view and grabbed me. I was only aware of the hook in my arm…" Sango opened her mouth to say more but couldn't seem to get the words out.

She knew it was appropriate. She knew it was polite, but she couldn't find the power within herself. It seemed to go against all of her father's teachings. He was a demon and that alone wasn't a sin… not to her clan… but, he was also a thoughtless killer. The two made for an unforgivable combination. So, despite what he'd done for her, Sango could not bring herself to… thank him.

"Where are we?" she asked instead.

"Kagome's time."

"Really?" Sango's eyes widened as she followed the dog lord up a short flight of stairs to a wooden door. He stopped and was as still as the structure itself, so she stopped too and waited. Was he listening? Was he making sure it was safe to go out? He must have been. Either that or she'd irritated him in some way.

He pushed the door open and stepped out into the early light. His long silver hair glistened brightly as he strode with long steps toward a house across a courtyard.

Sango recognized the place to be a shrine. Different than the ones she was used to but a shrine none the less.

"How do you know?" Sango asked quietly, "Have you been here before?"

"Hm," he nodded slightly without looking down at her.

"Did… Kagome bring you here?"

Another almost indiscernible nod.

"Why didn't she tell me?" she whispered to herself in amazement and with a small frown.

When they reached the door of the house, Sesshoumaru simply opened it and walk on in.

Sango thought of pointing out that perhaps he should have knocked first but decided against it. She was feeling dizzy.

Footfalls hurried down the stairs, along the hallway, and a form came into view.

"Mom, Is that you? I can't find his…" Her large brown eyes discovered them there, the two standing motionless in the kitchen. They widened and her mouth fell open. "Sesshoumaru!" Kagome came to a skidding stop on the smooth wooden floor. Her expression was disbelieving. "Sango?" tears began to well in those eyes and she rushed forward. Her arms wrapped around the demon's waist. His body stiffened in uncomfortable protest but he made no noise. Soon she released him and her embrace fall upon Sango.

Then Kagome stepped back, her hands grasping Sango's shoulders.

"You're arm!" Kagome gasped.

It was with that that Sango flattered, her shoulders fell softly forward, and her knees gave way. Kagome stepped close again to catch her.

The silver haired monster's eyes watched the two girls as they slipped to the floor.

"Sango!" Kagome spoke with desperation as she shook her friend gently. "Sango!" she turned to look up at him. "Do you remember the medical kit? The one my mom used on you? Can you get it?"

He didn't move.

"Sesshoumaru… Please." Kagome asked softly.

"Hm." He was gone before Kagome had even had time to press her palms over the still bleeding wounds on each side of her friend's arm. He was back in a heartbeat.

She took the large tin box from him and flipped it open. She tore items from it and ripped open packages. Both of her hands moved quickly. At times even holding things in her teeth.

"What happened to her?" she asked.

"She heard a voice from within the well. A hook pulled her in." he told her.

Kagome was quiet as she worked. Her deft little hands placed gauze and wrapped bandages as if she were a seasoned pro.

"Can you carry her to the room you slept in before?" she asked him.

He knelt and picked the demon slayer carefully up as Kagome ran ahead and unrolled the same futon he'd used. Sesshoumaru set her back down on it and watched as Kagome covered Sango with a thick blanket. The bleeding had stopped and the color was returning to her face.

Kagome turned her eyes to him. He stood, noble as ever, beside the sewing table. A patch of dried blood marred his yellow sash. A hole had been torn in the fabric at the center of the stain.

"That's not from the hook, is it? You had a sacred weapon, didn't you? You used it… You went in after her?" She said after she stood.

He didn't say anything.

"Why?"

But he was silent.

"You don't like humans."

"Hm."

"What does that mean? Does that mean that I'm right? That you don't like Humans?"

"You know that I do not."

"You're right, I do know. So, why'd you jump in after her?" Kagome pressed.

He was quiet.

"What did you hurt yourself with?"

"A dagger."

"A dagger? Where'd you get a sacred dagger?"

"Kaede."

"Kaede was there?" Kagome chuckled softly, "You and Sango seem to have had quite the night." Her small smile faded away. "Why'd you do it?" she asked yet again.

He was silent, his stony gaze unmoving.

Kagome sighed in defeat. She wasn't going to get the beautiful demon to say something he didn't wish to say and she knew that well enough.

"…Thank you." Kagome finally spoke. "She's one of my best friends and it means the world to me."

He didn't even blink.

Was he breathing?

"Oh no!" she gasped, snapping back to her senses. Kagome hopped to her feet and ran out into the kitchen. She grabbed a jacket off of one of the chairs and a backpack stuffed solid. "I have to go to the hospital! Of course you two would be the only things in the world that could make me forget about that! This might have to do with what happened to Sango too." She blurted out as she slipped her shoes on by the door. "My mom found Sota hurt in the courtyard last night and had to rush him to the hospital. She sent me home to get some of his things now that he's awake again. I'll ask him about voices and the hook." She opened the door and looked desperately back at him. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Sango looks like she'll be alright but my mom will know better than I do. I'll bring her with me if I can get her to leave Sota… And please, please, please don't leave the house."

Sesshoumaru only gazed toward her slender figure in the doorway.

"Just don't… Please? Okay?" she sighed, "I've gotta run. See you in a little while!" she hurried out and closed the door behind her, leaving Sesshoumaru in a thick and heavy silence.

…

Sango awoke to a clatter.

She sat up, blinking the sleep away.

"Where…?" Oh that's right… the future. She looked at her arm. Cleaned and neatly bandaged. She felt better, almost normal and pushed herself up out of the bedding and onto her feet with only a little wobble.

A scratching sound rumbled across a floor somewhere else in the house.

She straightened her clothes and went to see what the noise had been. Sango climbed a flight of stairs and walked along a short hallway to an open door by the end. She leaned in just enough to see.

The bright little room was decorated with familiar and very unfamiliar things. But she recognized a bed of sorts and a little table beside it. There stood the monster in white, a tiny white shell between his claws. He glanced at her from the corned of his eye, a glint of gold, before he set the shell carefully down on a table.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, is anyone else here?" she asked him.

He didn't answer her and she assumed it meant that they were alone.

"I heard a noise. Was it you?"

"No," he told her curtly, his baritone voice smooth and precise.

"What made it?"

Sesshoumaru gracefully extended his arm and pointed, without looking, to the open closet.

There, high on the shelf, cowered a cat. The cat's fur had puffed out in all directions and its eyes were as large as saucers with fright. Once it had seen that its location was known, the fluffy beast launched itself with a high pitched cry, out of the closet, out of the bedroom door, and down the stairs where it became silent again.

Sango had hardly had time enough to jump out of the terrified feline's way.

She wanted to giggle. She wanted to remark upon the cat's dislike of the dog demon. She wanted to… but didn't. She wasn't sure how to act around him. He was for all intents and purposes everything she fought against and hated. As far as she understood, he was an evil and just the kind of powerful evil she'd been training her entire life to destroy.

But, obviously, there was more to the story. He'd been here before.

Kagome had hugged him when they arrived… Hugged him. Despite the fact that the monster hadn't seemed fond of the gesture, Sango was shocked by their apparent closeness. Sango thought that she and Kagome had a bond like sisters. How could it be that Kagome could go through so much, have Sasshoumaru accompany her to the future, develop some sort of relationship with him where in hugging was safe?… She could only imagine that anyone other than Rin would have ended up dismembered were they to embrace the silver haired fiend. How could all of this happen and Kagome never tell her about it?

Did Inuyasha know?

She wanted to ask so many questions.

But she'd wait… He just wasn't the one to ask.

Sango glanced out the window.

"How long has Kagome been gone?" She turned to face him even though his gaze fell elsewhere. "Why did she leave?" she asked becoming frustrated with his aloofness. How hard was it to answer her?

"Sota," he stated and walked past her, through the doorway.

"Sota?"

"Her brother,"

"Can you please elaborate?" She asked in frustration. She had the distinct feeling that he thought of her as little more than a nuisance.

"His mother found him injured. They have taken him to be mended." He said as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"How terrible!" Her voice was thick with concern and she found herself instantly irritated with the monster's choice of words which made the child sound like a broken toy. "How was he injured?"

Sesshoumaru entered the kitchen and was still again… listening.

"You will ask Kagome yourself." he said.

"Don't be difficult." She was startled to find herself saying, "Kagome's not h… Oh, they are here." Sango realized as three figures came into sight beyond the window glass.

Kagome was the first through the door. She stepped to the side and held her elegant hand out toward Sango as an older woman and a much older man entered.

"Mom, Gramps, this is my friend Sango." She introduced with a proud smile.

Kagome's mother put a welcoming hand on Sango's shoulder.

"I've heard so many stories about you. Thank you for all you've done for our Kagome. I'd give you a hug if not for your arm. Is it painful?"

"Only a little, when I move it."

"Come, let's go to the bathroom and make sure it's alright. Hopefully we won't need to do much more to it." Kagome's mother turned toward the hallway but stopped as they passed Sesshoumaru. One of her soft hands reached up and came to rest upon his shoulder, slipping under the turn of spiked armor that hovered over it. "I was so sure I'd never see you again. I'm glad I was wrong."

Sango's mouth fell open a little in disbelief. But they were soon moving down the little hallway and she composed herself again.

"It's good to see you again, Lord Sesshoumaru." Gramps started, "Kagome told me that Sango heard a voice and was grabbed by a hook."

"Yes,"

"Sota told us a story very much like that. He said that he heard his father's voice and that drew him into the shrine of the Bone Eater's Well. Then a hook came from within the well and caught his side. He managed to get free and run out of the shrine but collapsed in the courtyard… Sota was just a baby when his father left. I doubt he remembers his father's voice but he insists that he knew it was him."

"Sango heard her father." Sesshoumaru informed them smoothly.

"Sango's father's been dead for a while." Kagome said.

"I've already been out there… to the well and I didn't sense anything unusual. I was wondering if you'd take a look." Gramps asked with his eyes upon the dog lord.

Without comment Sesshoumaru moved for the door.

"Wait!" Kagome told him, "Gramps, did you put up the sign? The one that says the shrine is closed for the day?"

"Yes, it's up."

"Okay, go ahead. No one will see you." She said with a small sigh.

"I should grab you some of my old clothes, though. Are the same ones you wore last time okay? You might need to leave the shrine for something." He said as he turned and left the kitchen.

…

Kagome stood a cautious distance from the open door of the shrine of the Bone Eater's Well. It had always been such a welcoming sight. It was the doorway she hurried happily through on her way to and from the future and past. The past where her friends were… and the future that held her family. But now it looked like a gaping mouth ready to swallow her whole. A cave of unknown dangers… Of sweet voices and silver hooks.

Sesshoumaru's head tilted up just a little and he seemed to be focusing on something unseen.

"Do you sense or smell anything?" she asked him.

"Your brother's blood."

Kagome bit her lip and was quiet. She held her breath as Sesshoumaru entered the shrine… and came back out again.

"Still nothing?"

"Mm,"

"I didn't get to ask Sota as many questions as I'd hoped. The nurse wanted to change his bandages so we left. We could go back and have him explain more about what he heard and saw." She offered.

…

Kagome led Sango up the narrow flight of stairs and into her room.

Gramps had given Seshhoumaru some of his old clothes and left him to change in her mother's little sewing room.

"We're lucky we're the same size." Kagome told Sango with a smile.

"I can't just wear what I have on?" Sango asked as she sat on the bed, her eyes scanning the room decorated with things that delighted and puzzled her.

"You could…actually. But it's not what most girls are wearing now. We still do, but mostly as dress up on special occasions and festival days." Kagome explained.

"Oh… I will try something of your time."

Kagome rummaged through her dresser drawers, pulling out this and that.

"What do you think the connection is? I mean, do you think there's a reason why it went after you and Sota?"

"And Rin," Sango added.

"It tried to get Rin too?"

"Yes. Whatever it is tried to take Rin when she and Lord Sesshoumaru were near the well. Sesshoumaru pulled her away."

"And went to find you?" Kagome asked.

"Yes,… He warned me… He was concerned that you would be in danger if you were to travel through the well." Sango told her.

Kagome was quiet as she pulled open the bottom drawer and sat on the floor. She didn't quite know how to process what she'd heard. He hadn't just saved Sango… He'd saved her?

"Kagome…" Sango began, "Why didn't you tell me that he'd been here before?"

"I… I told Inuyasha as soon as I got back. In fact he saw us return through the well and he was so upset, I just didn't want to bring it up again… I didn't think it mattered to anyone but me anyway."

"You invited that monster here and didn't think it mattered?"

"Sango, I didn't invite him here! I arrived in the past just in time to see him being attacked. He was hurt and I dragged him back to this time to save his life. It wasn't like I asked him over for a cup of tea or something… I just couldn't stand to watch him being killed."

"He's a murderer."

"He's a surrogate father to a little girl who'd be dead if…!"

"She'd be better off with humans, without him!" Sango cut in her voice hushed but firm.

"And he's Inuyasha's brother!" Kagome added with a slight furrowing of her delicate brow, "And you don't have to say it! I know they hate each other, but no matter what, it just didn't seem right to leave him to be torn apart by those monks. All they cared about was killing a demon. They didn't even know who he was. It could have just as easily been Shippo, Inuyasha or Kilala. In fact when we got back they attacked Inuyasha as well and the two of them had to fight the monks off."

"Demon slayers?"

"Yes, they called themselves The Blue Monks."

Sango's eyes widened a little.

"I know of them." was all she said.

"He was worried about my ability to travel through the well? He was concerned about me?"

"It seemed that he was."

"I didn't think it mattered to him. I thought everything would go right back to the way it used to be. Him hating us, us avoiding him… I'm surprised." She said handing Sango a small pile of clothes.

"Kagome…"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry… I know that he entered the well to save me and did just that… But I can't trust him." Sango admitted.

"…That's alright. We only have to work together long enough to figure out what's going on so we can go back to the past again. You don't have to trust him." She gave her friend a reassuring smile. "This…" she held up one specific item of lacy clothing. "I'm going to have to explain how to put on. Let's just say, you won't need to warp your chest here in the future. Things are much more comfortable now."

…

Kagome left her bedroom so that Sango could change, closing the door behind her.

Sango reached into the folds of her clothing. Her slender fingers found there a secret. She tightened her grip around it and pulled it into the light.

The sacred dagger.

The one that let the dog lord through the well.

…The one that she'd pulled from his side.

She'd scrubbed it clean when Kagome's mother had left her alone in the bathroom for a moment. She knew she had to wash the smell of his blood from it or he'd know she had it. As long as he'd been wearing his bloody clothes he probably hadn't notice it. It would have smelt like him. But now that he'd washed and would be wearing new clothes she needed to be sure it didn't smell like anything at all… or she could make sure it smelt like something all together new… like lavender soap.

She couldn't help but feel slightly bad. She felt she was betraying Kagome's trust… But how could she trust him? Sango didn't and she wouldn't. Maybe they could work together and soon find themselves safely back in the past. He'd go his way and they'd go theirs… But he was Sesshoumaru… so she'd keep this dagger close… just in case.

She set it down and changed quickly into the clothes Kagome had found for her.

When she'd finished she wrapped a handkerchief around the tiny blade and tucked it into her front pocket. Her top hung long enough so that it didn't show. Now, how to keep him form noticing the faint thrum of its power? She supposed she'd just have to keep a little distance from him, so not stand too close… Not that she wanted to.

Perhaps the Blue Monks had had the right idea.

Sesshoumaru was, after all, Sesshoumaru.

…

Kagome met her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Sango!" she chimed. "You look great. You're just like a modern girl." She smiled with delight, "I never thought I'd see it."

She'd just finished explaining that they'd first go to the hospital to question Sota when they walked into the kitchen.

Sango's breath caught in her throat when she saw the demon standing beside the table.

He was dressed in clothing from Kagome's time. A white button up shirt and kaki pants. Kagome's mother stood behind him, braiding his long silver hair. It was pulled back such that it hid the tips of his pointed ears.

"It'd just be less noticeable if you did." Kagome's mother said.

"What's going on?" Kagome asked.

"He insists on bringing his swords and I told him he'd stand out less if we put them in some document tubes."

"Oh, that's good idea. They won't be out in the open and they have a strap so you can wear the tubes across your back. You'll blend right in… Well almost." She smiled.

"You will show me." He spoke.

"It'd be nice if you said please, but since I know you won't I'll pretend you did and get some anyway." Kagome said with a small frown. She left the kitchen just as her mother finished with his hair.

Sango watched in amazement as, without being asked, the regal beast sat and Kagome's mother began to dab flesh toned makeup onto his face. It hid perfectly his crescent moon and the two burgundy stripes on each of his fine cheeks. Sesshoumaru didn't flinch. Only his calm amber eyes shifted with something akin to boredom… Or was it patience?… It was so hard to tell.

But he'd done this, hadn't he? It dawned on Sango… He'd done this all before.

Was that… jealousy that churned her heart?

She shook the feeling away.

No.

Not of this monster.

Kagome was back with a plastic tube in her hands.

"I could only find one," she told him.

"Hm," was his only response.

Kagome explained briefly to the dog lord that business men were often seen hurrying about with them. Large presentation displays no doubt rolled up and stuffed inside.

He didn't seem to care, but Kagome handed it to him despite that.

"Which sword will you bring?" Kagome's mother asked him.

He was quiet for a long while and just when they were all sure that he simply wasn't going to answer…

"Grandfather," he said sternly.

"Did you call me?" Kagome's grandfather asked coming in from the next room.

The dog lord lifted a sword from the table and held it out to him.

"This is Tenseiga… Will you look after it." He didn't say it as if he were asking a question.

"I'd be honored," Kagome's grandfather took the sword with an air of pride.

"Kagome," Sango began, "Before we leave, please excuse me for a moment. I'd like to pray at the shrine."

"Oh, I'll go with..."

"Alone, please. I'm sorry. I just need to think over what's happening for a moment before we face it head on."

"Of course. Please though, stay away for the well. I don't think any of us should go near it alone."

Sango nodded before making her way outside. Taking one last glimpse of the absurd display occurring in the bright kitchen. The loving little family tending to that devastating demon.

She turned at the corner of the house and walked across the courtyard. She knew Kagome's grandfather must keep something of use on the property. Something that could mask the power of the dagger hidden at her side. She made a bee-line toward what looked to be a work shop or place to store artifacts when something caught the corner of her eye.

There on the door of the shrine of the Bone Eater's Well... were hung sutras. Perfect paper sutras to block the power of the supernatural... to block the power of something like the dagger. Kagome's grandfather must have put them there. Sango hesitated. Kagome was right. She should keep her distance from the well. But she found herself conflicted.

Before she knew it her feet were moving and a hand reaching up to the door. He fingers tore away one of the crisp white parchments. She glanced back toward the house before she pulled out the tiny blade and wrapped it carefully in the paper charm.

That should do. That should be enough to hide it from him.

Sango slipped the bundle back into her pocket and took a deep, unsteady breath. She had to stop herself for a moment. Why did he fluster her so? She'd always been so steadfast, so strong. There was so little that could get under her skin, but there was something about him.

She'd seen him fight. Only a few times but that was enough to know what a thoughtless, heartless, cold and cruel beast he could be... he was. Was that not reason enough to be ready? She believed with all of her heart that Kagome hadn't the foggiest idea what she was getting herself into. The danger she was putting her little family in. It was her duty to be ready to protect them. To protect her friend.

Sango began to walk back to the house just as Kagome and Sesshoumaru opened the door.

"Now that Lord Sesshoumaru is disguised I'm going to put the sign in front of the Bone Eater's Well shrine only. We need visitors you know. It is our business." Her grandfather said squeezing through the doorway between them.

"Oh okay, Gramps."

"Are we going now?" Sango asked giving the dog lord a quick up and down. It was remarkable how human he could look.

"Yes, I think we're all set." Kagome said and turned her head to look up at Sesshoumaru.

He seemed to straighten up just a little, turn his head away from her and tighten his hand on the strap of the document tube that hung across his back.

A moment later they were headed down the long flight of steps that lead from the shrine to the roadway when a car rolled quickly by. Sango gasped in surprise and stumbled a bit, but caught herself.

"What was…?"

"It's a car. People control them and use them to get places quickly." Kagome explained. "All you have to remember is, in this time most everyone is nice… mostly. And, you don't have to be afraid when you walk around town. Nothing's going to hurt you. Just don't step out into the road without checking for oncoming cars
first. The person may not see you and might not be able to stop in time. But for the most part, it's quite safe."

"And demons? Don't they cause trouble? Are they not something to worry about?"

"There…" Kagome glanced over at Sesshoumaru, "Well, as far as we know, there aren't many left."

"By this time humans have killed them?"

"Mostly," Kagome admitted quietly. She felt a little sick saying it with the dog lord right there.

Though, Sesshoumaru didn't seem to be paying them any attention.

Sango found within herself a feeling she didn't at first expect upon hearing such news.

… Pride.

She felt as if people like her… as if she'd… won. Sango turned her nose up just a little at the back of the monster that descended the steps just in front of her.

As they made their way through town, Kagome answered Sango's many questions about the strange and wonderful things that populated the future, but she was also careful not to stray from their path toward the hospital. They couldn't afford to get side tracked.

In just a little time more they'd arrived and Kagome smiled when she saw Sango's eyes widen at the huge building covered in sheets of glistening glass. Sirens neared and the door opened by itself for them.

Sesshoumaru wrinkled his nose and furrowed his brows.

"It stinks of death and sickness." He said bluntly. A nurse exiting past them shot him an insulted look but continued on.

"This is where the sick are taken care of." Kagome explained.

A few minutes and a flight of stairs later they were at Sota's room. Kagome peered in first.

"Sota?" she said noticing that he was awake and watching television.

"Kagome!" he shouted happily.

"I brought some people to see you."

"Who?"

"Guess,"

"Your friends from school?"

"No,"

"I give up."

Kagome walked into the room and her companions followed.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" Sota sat forward of the pillows that propped him up. "It's good to see you."

The dog lord nodded.

"This is Sango," Kagome introduced.

"The demon slayer who rides Kilala? Wow! Kagome's told me all about you and the battles you've fought together."

"She did? I'm flattered." Sango admitted.

"Kagome, the doctor said I should be able to go home in a few days."

"That's wonderful, Sota. We actually need to ask about what happened. The same thing may have happened to Sango and Rin."

"Oh,"

"Will you tell us?"

"Well, Gramps asked me to rake the leaves around the shrine of The Bone Eater's Well before dinner. But I heard a voice from inside. I thought it might be you getting ready to go to the past so I went into the shrine to say goodbye but there was no one there. When I went to leave I heard it again. This time though I could tell what it was saying. It was calling me to come to it. It said that it loved and missed me and was sorry… and Kagome… it sounded just like Dad. I knew it wasn't. I knew it didn't make any sense. But, I couldn't not believe it. Everything in me wanted to believe it."

"That's what happened to me and also what Rin told us happened to her." Sango stated.

"So whatever it is can travel through to both times too." Kagome said.

"So… you won't be able to go back until you find a way to stop it?" Sota asked.

"Seems that way." Sango told him.

The Trio walked back up the temple steps in silence. Kagome had just finished explaining photography to Sango and her friend had fallen quiet as she rolled the concept over in her head.

When they reached the top they could see that the shrine was inundated with a larger than normal group of tourists. Many of the visitors listened to a city tour guide who would ask questions of her grandfather, who'd then describe interesting facts about the shrine, and shrines in general, with great gusto. Gramps reveled in the spotlight as always. Others of the tour group wandered around taking snap shots and reading the small informative signs.

As the trio entered the swarm of people Sango's eyes darted around curiously, looking them over.

"Some of these people… they look different. Their eyes are different and their hair… like a demon's, but they are normal humans." She began, "Some have hair like gold and eyes of blue or green. Those three there have skin that's dark and that one there has hair that is red…"

"Oh, right… People didn't travel as much or as far in the past. The chance of you having seen people of other races is slim." Kagome told her. "The world is a huge place but despite that, in this age, traveling around the world can be done in just hours, so people wander all over the planet to see the sights and learn new things. And in other lands people look different. Different hair and skin and eyes… there are a few countries where the entire population is made up of mostly of people whose ancestors aren't from there, so everyone looks different from one another... Sometimes even within the same family."

"Oh," was all Sango could think to say. Her wide eyes watched the crowd.

Apparently the world was a much larger place than she'd ever imagined.

Sesshoumaru felt a weight holding fast to his belt. He glanced down and found there a child. It was a girl, just a couple years older than Rin. She, in fact, looked very much like his young ward.

"Excuse me, mister," she said with a little bow. "I like your hair. How do you get it that color?"

"Leave me be." Sesshoumaru said smoothly and turned away. She may look like Rin, but she was not.

The child's hand didn't leave his side.

"Please?"

His brows furrowed slightly over his narrowed eyes. He didn't look at her.

"It simply grows." He stated.

"It just grows that color?"

"Hm," He took a heavy step away which pulled himself free of her small fingers.

"Thank you, sir!" she said.

"I'm sorry for the way he's acting."

The little girl turned to see two young ladies standing behind her.

"He doesn't understand how to be polite." Kagome tried to explain.

Someone walked up beside the girl and took up her hand. She glanced at the young man.

"Big brother, there you are!" she said smiling up at him. She looked back to Kagome and Sango. "It's okay that he's rude. I didn't mind. I just wanted to know about his hair. Thank you." She and her brother walked back toward one of the tour groups and vanished into the crowed.

"He's so cold. How dare he treat a child that way." Sango said to Kagome while she watched the monster's retreating figure as he made his way through the wandering humans toward the house.

"Maybe the girl upset him because she reminded him of Rin. She looked a lot like her. I'm sure he misses Rin right now and would rather be in the past."

"That's no excuse, Kagome. If anything, wouldn't a rational person be even nicer to a stranger if that stranger resembled a loved one they miss?"

"He's a demon. He's not like us, Sango."

"No, Kagome, he's not." She said coldly before leaving her friend and walking away toward the shrine.

"Sango? What's going on with you?" Kagome asked jogging to catch up.

"What's wrong with me? You're the one who brought him here. Forget for a moment that you brought him here at all… You're the one who trusts him." Sango told her, "The stains of all of those he's murdered drip from his aura. Can't you see it?"

"Of course I can…"

"Then why? Why befriend something like that. He makes my skin crawl."

"He's different. The person I found under all that silence was not the person I expected."

"When he was weak. But of course he'd have to behave in order to keep the trust it'd take for your family to feel safe saving him. So in the end it was self serving. But he's not weak now. How can you trust him now? You said that when you got back to the past he fought with Inuyasha against the Blue Monks… but not to save you, Kagome, and not because he respected Inuyasha, but to save Rin… Again… self serving. He tried to kill you… a few times. He tried to kill Inuyasha more times than we even know. He doesn't care."

"If that's so, why'd he jump into the well after you?" Kagome asked.

"Maybe he's finally decided he wants your jewel shards or… Whatever it is, I know he didn't do it out of the kindness of his heart. He's after something."

"Well, he's here and the best we can do is just tolerate each other until we can get home."

"I assure you, I'm doing my best to tolerate him."

"Sango… you seem different. I've never seen you do irritated by something."

Sango raised an insulted eyebrow.

"You're the one who's been keeping secrets, Kagome." She said before turning on her toes and walking away.

Kagome watched from a distance as Sango began to wash her hands in the ritual that's preceded praying at a temple for thousands of years. Kagome then looked back toward the house but Sesshoumaru had already vanished inside.

"I don't think he's after anything. What would he want here?" She said softly to herself.

…

Sango lingered longer than she usually would at the shrine. Most of the visitors had followed their tour guides on to other sights.

"Something troubles you?" She heard Kagome's grandfather ask.

Sango turned and watched as he sat on the smooth bamboo floor beside her.

"Yes," she told him.

"If you think talking will make you feel better. I will listen and try my best to help. It seems to me that you and Kagome had a bit of a falling out. I just want to make sure everything's alright. I know it must feel strange for you to be here in this time."

"It is." She sighed a little. "May I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Why did you save him?"

"Mmm, I assume you mean Lord Sesshoumaru?"

Sango nodded.

"I admit… I didn't think it was a good idea at first. I, like you, was raised to exterminate demons and I could tell as soon as I saw him that he'd caused a great amount of suffering… But Kagome asked me to… and I trust her decisions. I trusted that she must know something about him that I didn't. And as I came to know him better, I found that she was right."

"I…" Sango began but couldn't find the words.

"I've been told a lot about you, Sango," Kagome's grandfather said after he noticed her pause. "and feel free to stop me if I'm wrong. You were brought up in a clan that hunts and kills demons. You don't hate them all, though. There's your friend Inuyasha, the little fox and your cat Kilala. You were raised to hunt only evil, be it large or small. And when you crossed paths with Kagome and decided to join the group, you found your new friends pitted against Sesshoumaru. You saw at once that he was, indeed, a powerful evil. It was only natural for you to develop a hatred of him. But I'll tell you something that only the old seem to understand, perhaps it takes a lifetime to learn. Sango, you seem very much an open book, and that is an admirable thing. But I'm sure you know that not everyone's like that. Sometimes the man who's lived a sweet life and is warm on the surface is rotten inside… and sometimes the man who is cold and has seen hell and war is the one who's been forced to learn what real honor is."

"But he's a murderer."

"Does he kill humans?" Kagome's Grandfather asked.

"Yes,"

"Do we kill demons?"

"Yes,"

"Isn't that hell? Isn't that war?"

…

Sango lay asleep on a futon on Kagome's bedroom floor. Kagome had made a place for the dog lord in the room where he'd stayed before, but she wasn't even sure if he'd need it… if he even slept when uninjured.

He sat on the porch gazing out at the glittering lights of the city beyond the blackness of the little shrine. Toukijin, still in the document tube, rested across his lap.

She sat beside him without a greeting.

"I'm sorry," she said after a few deep breaths.

"What for?" he asked. His voice was low and smooth in such a way that left Kagome longing for more.

"I never wanted you to get pulled into the future again. I never wanted to separate you from Rin." She explained.

His shadowed face tilted down just a bit. Bright wisps of his silver hair, glinting in even the dim light, fell across his profile.

"Um, if you don't mind my asking… How did you meet? It's just that, we were a little surprised to see her with you for the first time… How did you find her?" she asked after a long pause.

"She found me."

"…She did? How?"

Amber embers seemed to flash within his narrowed eyes when he shifted them to look at her. She wondered if he were weighing her reasons for wanting to know.

"My arm," he said and paused. "I'd just lost it." a longer pause.

Kagome suddenly felt embarrassed for asking. It dawned on her that she'd so rudely enquired of a story that involved the great dog lord… at less that his best. Something he'd, of course, loath to admit.

But for her, for Kagome, he reluctantly went on.

"She found me in the woods near her village and tried to…" a strange little look came to his face. His lips remained parted but he didn't finish what he'd been saying. Did he not know what to say?

"You heal so quickly. Were you still hurt? She tried to help you?" Kagome offered, "Nurse you back to health?"

"Hm. Healing from the wound of my father's fang was slow. Rin, orphaned, tried to look after me. While I regained my strength, her village was attacked by demon wolves. They left her dead. I found her… revived her. She has followed me since."

Kagome was surprised by how much information he'd offered up without prodding. Then she was surprised by what she'd heard.

"Wait… She was dead?"

"Yes."

"How'd you revive her?"

He looked away and Kagome suddenly felt as though she were being a bother.

She swallowed hard.

Kagome had been there, when Sesshoumaru's arm was sliced from his side. If not for her, Inuyasha wouldn't have had the sword with which to do it. Back in that moment she could honestly say that she saw him as nothing more than a monster. He was the villain. The evil to be overcome and Inuyasha had gotten lucky. She knew that now. It was obvious that Sesshoumaru was the more powerful of the two. Inuyasha had a lot of drive and a lot of heart but his half brother simply knew what he was doing. The fact that Inuyasha had taken his arm that day was a fluke. It had saved them, Kagome and the half breed, but it was a fluke. Kagome was still very sure that on that day Sesshoumaru would have killed them both.

… But, when injured and alone who came to his aid? Not his own brother. Not any adult. A human adult would have stoned him to death to eliminate something to be feared. A demon adult would have murdered him to destroy a threat. A child. A tiny human girl with no preconceptions would care for him, because she didn't know any better.

She did good… because she didn't know not to.

Kagome suddenly felt that she'd been so heartless. How could she not consider what a child hadn't needed to think twice about? That someone might need help.

She tightened her hands around each other.

"Oh god…" she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"What for?" he asked.

"The loss of your arm,"

"My brother wielded the sword, not you, Miko."

"But if I hadn't pulled it free…" She pointed out.

"You are lucky that you did."

Kagome took a quick breath.

He didn't elaborate.

"You… would have killed me…"

"Yes."

They sat in the stillness. She wasn't surprised of course. It was just strange to hear him say it. She was surprised to hear him say more.

"You were only another human then."

"But, I'm only another human now." She told him.

He turned his head to look her in the eyes and shiver ran across her shoulders.

Sesshoumaru stood and walked off into the shadows. She knew she shouldn't go after him. It wasn't right for her to press him with anymore questions now. Walking away was his way of telling her so. He'd probably stay up the night and wear a path walking circles around the house. His nature was not to stay in one place. It probably pained him to need to remain here. Soon, they'd figure this mess out and return him to his own time. They'd part ways again… Soon enough.

"Goodnight, Sesshoumaru." She called softly to the dog lord.

…

The girls lay in the darkness.

"Sango?" Kagome said as she turned in her bed to look down at the demons slayer who lay tucked warmly atop a futon on the floor. Kagome honestly wasn't sure Sango would respond. She'd said nearly nothing to her since their disagreement in the courtyard.

"Yes?"

"What if we just tried to go through the well? If we make it, I feel like we might have more luck on the other side. There's more magic there to use to our advantage." Kagome explained, "And we could get Miroku, Kaede and Inuyasha to help. Of course, it'd just be you and I fighting if we found trouble… Sesshoumaru would have to be weakened to even travel through the well. But if we did make it through without being attacked…" She seemed to drift away in thought.

"Kagome, what do you mean… about magic."

"Well… there's just not as much here in the future. There are so many amazing powers and elements of the supernatural in the distant past. I know you've grown accustom to living with them from day to day." She sighed, "There's hardly anything like that left in this time. I mean we still have some lesser powers but nothing like I've been able to see in the past."

"Is…" But Sango wasn't able to finish.

A crash like a clap of thunder and a shutter shook the house. The girls sat up in their beds with a start.

There came a clatter from outside and they made for the window.

Out in the courtyard, lit only by the tiny light on the porch and the wide white moon, stood with his back to them the demon lord. On the far side, his form bathed in shadows, save the stark gleam of a drawn sword, stood a man…

…No…

Kagome's eyes widened.

"Sango…" she uttered.

"I know… I know…" Sango assured her.

A demon.

Similar to Sesshoumaru in height and build. But his modern clothes were ragged. His slick, long, black hair hung to the small of his back, his elegantly pointed ears half hidden by it. He tilted his head with a quiet, tired grace and red eyes reflected the faint light. His face held the same strange paleness of eternal youth as Sesshoumaru and his half breed brother, but he did not stand with the same pride. His shoulders hung and his head was low… almost timidly so. His features were just as fine as Sesshoumaru's but different… European.

"I gave you no reason to attack." Sesshoumaru said calmly, lowering his sword from where he'd raised it in defense against the stranger's power.

Kagome darted out of the bedroom, Sango close behind, running along the dark hall and down the stairs.

The girls rushed out into the open night air, barefoot and dressed only in long nightshirts.

"Who is that?" They heard Kagome's grandfather say from behind them in the doorway.

"We don't know." Sango told him. "Who are you? What do you want?" she called to the stranger.

The demon said nothing.

Kagome hurried forward and stopped just behind Sesshoumaru's arm.

"He's a demon, right? Do you know what kind?" she asked.

"Yes."

"And?"

"Dog,"

"A dog demon?" Kagome almost whispered in surprise.

"Hm."

The strange dog demon drew his sword back. It was of European design. Kagome thought, perhaps Irish or Scottish judging by the metal knot work around the handle.

"I do not wish to fight. There are too few of us in this time. I do not seek to diminish our numbers further." Sesshoumaru said coldly.

"What's your name?" Kagome called.

But the stranger heaved his weapon up before bringing it down and driving a rush of sickeningly strong power toward them. Kagome had just enough time to throw her arms up to cover her eyes. When she opened them again she saw Sesshoumau's back… he'd stepped in from of her and taken the brunt of the blow.

"Are you alri…" she began, her hand reaching out and touching him, but he turned his head just enough to glance at her from over his shoulder. A gash bled above his eye but she could see it knitting quickly. His clothes were slightly singed around the seams and a low rumble climbed into his throat.

"Do you know him?" she asked.

"No,"

"Can you tell where he's from?"

"No,"

Sesshoumaru drew back his blade.

"Wait, Sesshoumau! Don't fight him. We don't know who he is or what he wants or even if he's really an enemy!"

"I no longer care."

"I do!"

But the sword was in motion. Kagome stepped out in front of Sesshoumaru and threw up her hands.

"Stop!" she screamed.

The demon lord froze, his brows deeply furrowed in a very unusual display of obvious anger.

"Does she do this sort of this often?" Kagome's grandfather asked in a voice that trembled with worry.

"All the time," Sango admitted.

"A dog demon… A dog demon from Europe…" Kagome's grandfather muttered to himself. "Wait!" he suddenly shouted. "Wait, I know what he is!" Kagome's grandfather cried out, "He's a Gwyllgi!"

The stranger's eyes widened and instantly found Kagome's grandfather.

"I'm right aren't I? That's what you are!" her grandfather called out.

"Is that true?" Kagome called to him, "Is that what you are." The Gwyllgi looked toward her and then to Sesshoumaru. "Wait, I get it now. He's not from here. He doesn't speak Japanese!"

Sesshoumaru seemed to ponder that for a moment before opening his mouth and saying something completely unrecognizable. A language Kagome didn't know at all. From his mouth sprang, as easily as Japanese, a language she'd never even heard.

The Gwyllgi took a step back and let the tip of his sword rest on the ground.

"What was that?" Kagome whispered to the demon lord.

"Old Welsh," He told her.

"How do you know how to speak Welsh?" she asked.

"I am very old." was his only explanation.

The Gwyllgi spoke, his smooth voice rolling over the strange language.

Sesshoumaru responded in turn.

And with that the Gwyllgi straightened, nodded, and fled toward the shrine of the bone eater's well.

"What did he say?" Kagome's grandfather asked as he and Sango hurried to join Kagome and Sesshoumaru.

"He has little choice in his actions. That if we value our lives we will avoid the well." But even as he spoke the words he was heading toward it.

The Gwyllgi vanished into the darkness of the shrine but by the time the dog lord burst through the doorway the other demon was gone.

"He…He jumped in?" Kagome asked, out of breath, when she reached the Bone Eater's well.

Sesshoumaru nodded once.

"Kagome, I think your idea was the only rational one. Waiting here isn't going to help us any. We should follow him." Sango stated.

"I think so too. Do you?" she asked looking at Sesshoumaru. His gaze didn't shift from the well. "I'll take that as a 'yes'. Come on. We need to change and get supplies. We need a way to get you through the well and I need to grab my bow… Sango needs a weapon." Kagome listed quickly.

"I may have something for you, Sango." Kagome's grandfather told her.

They moved to leave the shrine… all but the dog lord.

"Are you coming?" Kagome asked.

"No, I will wait here."

"Alright, we'll be right back."

…

Sango hurried back to the shrine. She'd changed into her normal clothes while Kagome went with her grandfather to fetch some weapons and the monster's clothing. When she entered the little shelter that protected the sacred Bone Eater's Well, he was still standing there just as they'd left him. She stopped for a moment and held her breath.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Listening." He said.

Sango was still… she didn't hear anything.

"What are you listening to?" she asked.

"Something distant..." He told her.

"In the well?"

He didn't respond but she assumed that that's what he meant. She couldn't hear anything. Sango stepped to the side of the well and looked down into it.

Nothing.

She turned back to Sesshoumaru.

His eyes remained on the well, his head tilted just a little.

He looked so human.

"Move away from it." he said in a hushed tone.

Sango heard a something… something humming…

She tried to spin herself around to look into the well but instead found herself teetering toward it. Sesshoumaru sensed her sudden instability and his eyes darted to the little human. He lunged forward. She was falling… falling just a little too quickly for him to wrap his arm around her and catch her in the crook of his elbow. Fast as he was, he wasn't fast enough.

Again he pondered Kagome's displeasure were he to let her fall.

He'd have to make a terrible choice.

Sesshoumaru opened his hand… and felt his sword… his Toukijin... tumble from it. It turned one bright silver arc before vanishing into the dark hole.

Sesshoumaru took quick hold of the flailing girl's outstretched arm.

"No!" she shrilled, "Don't touch me!"

She swung her arm out at him and, as if pulled into this world for nowhere at all, he was instantly aware of a strong purifying aura. He recognized it too… the dagger. He didn't have time to see it but he knew it must be in her hand. She tore her arm from his grasp just as her other hand brought the blade across his face.

It bit a deep gash into the side of his mouth and across his bottom lip. He pulled his head up and back to out distance her reach.

When he looked back again, blood spilling down his chin and dribbling across the floor, she was gone.

He frowned.

Sesshoumaru could feel the slice knitting itself shut already and waited a moment before wiping the blood away with the back of his hand and licking that clean with his tongue.

Footfalls.

She'd be upset.

"Sesshoumaru?" Kagome said hurrying into the well's shrine holding her bow and arrows under one arm, his clothes, Tenseiga and Moko Moko piled up in her hands. She rushed to place the things on the stairs and went to his side.

He didn't move.

"What happened? I heard yelling. Where's Sango?"

He nodded toward the well. The dark hole in the ground was silent as a tomb.

"What happened?" she asked again.

"Toukijin…" Sesshoumaru seemed to say to himself. Kagome suddenly noticed that his sword was gone.

"Sesshoumaru… did something come from the well and take her?"

"No."

He seemed quite irritated, but not at Kagome… at something else.

"Did…" Kagome eyed the blood at his feet, "Did you two fight?"

"Hm," was his only response.

"Why?"

"She did not want me to touch her,"

"Why did you need to touch her?" Kagome's voice was shaking ever so slightly.

"She was too close… She would not listen."

"Did you hurt her?"

"No,"

"Then, whose blood is that?"

"Mine."

"Yours…" Kagome looked him up and down… There wasn't a speck of red on him.

…

When the darkness in the hollow void delivered her to the other side, she found herself kneeling in the shallow water of a wide and unfamiliar well. Sango's eyes took a moment to adjust from the blackness to the gray light above. She stood slowly and looked upward.

There were no trees above...

... Not the ceiling of the shrine of the Bone Eater's Well.

She climbed carefully up and out.

As she pulled herself over the lip the vast expanse of her surroundings became clear to her. Sango perched herself on its stone side and gazed in amazement.

The landscape was unlike any she'd every seen before. Craggy and riddled with large stones, green thick yet faded grasses growing short and crammed into the spaces between the rocks. The treeless earth ran up and down in rounded hills as far as the eye could see in all directions, but one where it instead fell down a steep edge to the jagged and white-capped sea.

The waters churned and roared. Sango's eye swept the ruined wall that stood beside the well. It was a story tall but alone, no roof, no other walls, just this one. It'd been long ago left to crumble.

The well and the wall were all that was there that could be attributed to human hands. Was there anyone else? Where was she? When was she?

"Hello?" she called.

Nothing.

"Hello!" she called louder.

"I'm here, dear. You are not forgotten."

A figure came soundlessly from around the ruined wall. Her rusty red hair hung long. Her eyes the brilliant green of fresh clover.

"Who..." Sango began.

"I've been called so many things but Maria Enganxa is the name my mother gave me such a long time ago." Her perfect lips pulled into a sweet smile.

"Are you...?"

"Beautiful child," Maria began, "I have nothing to hide. I am the one who caught you with my hook. I am sorry. So very much so." She came closer and took Sango's cold hand in her own. The stunning woman smelt of moss and the glassy water of a clear brook. "You heard your father. I am sorry for that too."

"Why are you sorry?" Sango asked.

"That voice you heard was my own. I am cursed you see. Sometimes when I speak others hear what they want to hear. Sometimes they hear the voices of those they miss the most."

"Cursed?" Sango repeated.

"Child, what is that there?" Maria reached down to Sango's other hand where it hung at her side and pulled it upward. "A dagger with such power upon it and..." Her emerald eyes widened, "The blood of a demon dog!" she gasped quietly. "Where? Where did you find such blood?" she asked eagerly.

"He's..." Sango paused, "I apologies, it's a strange story." She said, "But I will try."

"Do not worry, I can sense that you have powers of awareness beyond a normal human and you know that I am not immortal but, despite my youthful appearance, I have lived a very, very long life and seen a great many strange things. I suppose that I am in fact one of those strange things. I will believe you, whatever you say." Maria straightened her slight frame a little more as if to express her resolve.

"He's a powerful demon lord from the past who kills without reason. He's murdered so many and yet my friend Kagome who's from this time... If in fact we are still in Kagome's time..." She suddenly wondered, " Well, she seems to trust him. She even brought him through the well into..."

"Through the well?" Maria asked.

"The Bone Eater's well. It acts as a doorway from her time in the future to our time in the past. The dog lord and I are both from the past."

"He's traveled through my well?"

"Your well?" Sango asked.

"Sweet girl, every well is mine. They are all but windows in my home of water, even if they've dried, and in and out of them I climb... but I'd never noticed that this one was a window in time... I'd never known it to be possible."

"If every well is yours then how could you not know?"

Maria's chuckle was like the chiming of bells.

"Darling, I may be a water witch but I am not all seeing. Have you any idea how many wells there are in this world? And all those that are now being dug... all those old that have fallen in. My home is always shifting... changing. I am but one woman, and as long as my life has been I have still not, and know I never will be able to, visit them all. This well... This Bone Eater's Well. I've only just discovered. And now a wonderful surprise. A dog demon. I will have him... if you will help."

"Have him?"

"I already have one."

"You mean the Gwyllgi?"

"Oh, you know what he's called. I wasn't sure you would, being from so far away. Yes, he is a dog demon and is mine now. I have such a fondness for them. And Gwyllgi's have such a liking for water as do I. He was made to be mine. Does this dog demon you speak of like water?"

"I honestly don't know..." Sango admitted.

"I was so sure I would never find another dog demon. There are so few left."

"In my time, in the past, there are more."

"More?"

"Yes, there are demons of all kinds."

"What is his name?" Maria said looking down at the blood on the blade.

"Lord Sesshoumaru."

"Wonderful. I shall have him... and then I shall go to the past... and I shall have some more." Maria gripped Sango's hand with exuberance and as if they'd always been the best of friends.

"But, may I ask, how do you expect to capture him? Your Gwyllgi barely scratched him when they met."

"They've met?"

"Yes,"

"And the black dog didn't tell me… Gwyllgi will be punished for that, indeed. But I'll take care of that later. I know you do not like your Sesshoumaru." Maria said simply.

"That is true." Sango admitted.

"I know that you'd do much to be rid of him. Not for selfish reasons of course, but for the safety of your friend, her family and all humans then and now."

"Yes... I would." Sango almost whispered the words.

"Well, dear girl, I know too that you are brave. You cut him with this blade, correct? You struck at him before he could strike at you."

"That's true."

"I know too that you can lure him back into the well. From there I will be able to subdue him. Then there will be no more reason for you to worry for the safety of others because of him. For under my control he will be as docile as a dove, just like my Gwyllgi."

"But, he's immensely powerful."

"Oh child, don't you know? He is meant to belong to someone. Without human kind his kind would not exist. For man created dog."

…

Sango climbed from the well.

"What's happened?" Kaede asked.

"Everything's fine now. Kagome and Sesshoumaru vanquished the demon. Kagome sent me ahead to ask you to prepare a meal with which to thank Lord Sesshoumaru."

"Oh, of course. Tell me, how is it you're able to travel through the well?"

"Oh, I haven't much time now, but I'll tell you all about it over dinner." Sango said with a small smile.

"How wonderful. Come along Rin, we have a meal to make."

"But Lady Kaede..." Rin argued as she watched Sango drop back into the well."

"Come along now."

"But there's something wrong... That lady's not telling the truth."

"Child, what are you saying?"

"She's fibbing."

"How do you know?"

"She's been with him for a while, so by now she should have noticed... Lord
Sesshoumaru doesn't eat human food."

Kaede stopped and gazed down in astonishment at the girl.

"He hardly needs to eat at all." Rin added.

The hold on her little hand tightened.

"I do not like to need to question a friend... but at times in is unavoidable and you, child, have a very good point." she glanced back over her shoulder. "Come, Rin. Hurry."

…

"Kagome!" Sango called as she found herself at the bottom of the Bone Eater's Well.

"Sango? Oh thank goodness you're alright!" Kagome was there, leaning over the edge to look down at her, "Sango," Kagome said a little quieter. "Why did you hurt Sesshoumaru?" Kagome's eyes shifted at something else in the little shrine and Sango knew he was up there with her.

"I..." What could she say? She couldn't lie and say that he attacked her. He was right there to deny it.

"He tried to stop me when I went near the well but I mistook his movements and thought he was going to hurt me." she said truthfully, but putting a slight spin on it. She knew he probably hadn't meant her any harm at that moment
but she did intend to harm him. She found herself deeply angered at his very presence. His fluid movements, his smooth voice, the way his emotionless eyes still managed to stun her.

The murderer.

The filthy killer.

He was not like Kilala, Shippo or Inuyasha. They weren't really demons, not in their hearts. This monster was. He was absolutely, to the core, what her family had trained so hard and fought so endlessly to eradicate. He had both tooth and claw and took advantage of them to the bloody hilt. He didn't deserve to be so perfect.

So fast, so agile, so good at killing... so beautiful.

"That's what he said too. He didn't mean to scare you, though."

"I..." She still couldn't bring herself to say she was sorry. Nervously she changed the subject. "I've been to the other side. Back to my time. The way is clear now, but that other dog, the Gwyllgi, he's there too. He's headed toward the village! We need to stop him before he hurts someone!"

"Alight!" Kagome shouted, "Come on, Sesshoumaru. We were right. The Gwyllgi's in the past!" she dropped her bag opting to take only her bow and arrows and save herself the weight. It was a long run from the well to the village and she wasn't sure Sesshoumaru would be interested in helping them once they got there and probably would be not at all willing to carry her.

She held out to him an arrow with which to enable his passing through the well but his hand caught hers, the arrow tip brushing his palm just a bit and instantly caused small burns. Kagome turned the arrowhead away from him in her hand but he didn't let go.

"Hurry!" Sango called from the bottom of the well.

"Don't" the dog lord said looking down at Kagome's small hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

His clear, amber eyes shifted to look into hers and Kagome felt her heart miss a beat. He lifted his head just a little but didn't alter his gaze.

"She is lying." His low voice spoke smoothly.

"What?" Kagome exclaimed loudly.

"She has not been to the past." He added.

Kagome leaned toward the well. It was close enough that if she stretched out her arm she could see Sango at the bottom.

"I'm not," Sango told her. She had heard him. "I swear to you, Kagome."

Kagome tugged at her wrist once but Sesshoumaru only tightened his grip.

"How do you know?" Kagome asked, only turning half way and looking at him from the corner of her eye.

"She smells of the sea."

"But... why would she lie to me?" Kagome asked him coldly.

He said nothing.

"She wouldn't…" but then Kagome paused, "But why would you?... One of you isn't telling the truth."

Again Sesshoumaru was silent.

"We saw the other dog demon run into the well's shrine and now he's not here. We know he must have gone through. If he did then he must be in the past and that's what Sango's telling me." She shook her head as if trying to shake away a bad feeling. "You say she doesn't smell like she's been there... That she smells of something else. I can't smell it. So I have no proof that what you're saying is true... But if it's not... Why would you lie?" Kagome was asking herself more than him.

"I do not lie." He said simply.

"Maybe you... did mean to hurt her... Maybe..."

Kagome took a ragged breath. She could hardly believe herself. Sango made sense and she had no proof of Sesshoumaru's accusations. Maybe Sesshoumaru wanted to get rid of Sango. Sango was a demon slayer after all. He hated humans. It only made sense that he'd hate someone like Sango more than most.

Had he tried to hurt her?

Had he!

Her friend!

Kagome pulled at her wrist again.

Her friend or Sesshoumaru… her friend or … or… a monster. Was Sango right? Was that all he was?

"Let go of me," she muttered nervously.

Sesshoumaru did not let go. He studied her closely with deep curiosity. Watching her mumble about both of the possibilities was a strange sight indeed. Wasn't it obvious who was telling the truth? Couldn't she just tell? Or was this yet another human shortcoming?

Kagome furrowed her brows. Her brown eyes narrowed.

She'd come to trust him, but she was like Rin wasn't she? She was one of two, not a representation of the human race. Sesshoumaru tolerated, and perhaps even sought to a certain extent, the company of Rin and Kagome, but all other humans were useless. Kagome suddenly felt like such a fool to think for a moment that she'd somehow awakened him to the fact that all humans were worth more credit than he'd ever given them. But she was wrong, wasn't she? He'd not changed.

She'd endangered all of these people in her time… by bringing him here.

She couldn't leave him here.

Kagome dropped her gaze to the ground and he watch as tears began to tumble down her cheeks.

He tilted his head... just a little.

Now, why was she crying? He pondered.

She stepped toward him until her nose almost touched his broad chest. Kagome turned her face upward and looked at his handsome face.

"What should I do?" she asked.

His gaze moved from her to the well and back again.

"Sometimes... I forget," Kagome said reaching up to with her hand, the wrist of which still held by his, and wiping away the concealer that covered the crescent on his forehead before withdrawing it again, "That you're a demon under all that makeup."

Her free hand pushed toward him and a scalding pain entered into his ribcage.

He squeezed his eyes shut before forcing them open and looking to his chest.

Her elegant little hand still hovered there, holding tight to the shaft of the sacred arrow she'd been clutching in her other fist. Her trembling little fingers tipped in blood... blood that quickly seeped from the wound, soaking through the modern white shirt.

Sesshoumaru tightened his grip on her wrist for only a moment, as he steadied himself against a wash of horrid weakness, before he let it go and moved to grab the arrow.

"No!" Kagome suddenly cried out.

SNAP!

Her hand had been closer. She couldn't let him... so she...

She brought her hands to her mouth in horror.

How had she been able…?

She dropped the arrow shaft to the floor and watched as the wincing demon fumbled to get a hold of the tiny nub where she's broken the arrow shaft off flush with his skin. He staggered back until he hit the wall, unable to get a grasp on the portion of the arrow that remained in his body.

His eyes seemed glassy for an instant before he shook his head and tried to regain his composure. But Kagome knew better. She'd seen him through this before with the blades of the Blue Monks. He was fighting purification from the inside out.

His other sword was there on the steps with his clothes. He could try to go for it, but Kagome was in the way and the distance seemed to ripple and waver.

"Sango!" Kagome called, "Help me!"

Sango quickly climbed up and out of the well.

"We need to get him back to the past. Help me pull him into the well." She'd wanted to just jump in and hurry to the village but knew that he couldn't be allowed to stay in this time.

The girls made a move toward him but a threatening rumble crept up his throat and he pulled his clawed hand up to defend himself.

"It's not enough," Kagome told Sango. "I know it's enough to allow him to pass through the well but it hasn't weakened him enough that we can get close to him. That arrow would destroy a lesser demon in a heartbeat but he's so powerful. It'd take more."

"Do you have enough?"

The growling in Sesshoumaru's throat faltered slightly as he listened to the girls talk about him. He reached down to his side and tore the hole in his shirt wider. He could hardly see the tiny nub of the arrow shaft for the blurring of his sight.

"I don't want to kill him, just knock him out... she looked toward her quiver. I think I might have enough to do it, but if we come to trouble when we get there we'll have nothing to defend ourselves with."

"Forget the arrows then. Save them for later. I'll see if this is enough." Sango said as she pulled the dagger out.

Sesshoumaru pressed his claws into the hole, feeling for it, but the pulsating purification powers that echoed through his side, his own slippery blood, and the trembling of his hand made the endeavor severely painful. Sesshoumaru's breath suddenly caught in his throat and he winced.

Sango watched his eyes lose focus and took that opportunity to move toward him.

Everything seemed to slow.

In that heartbeat she watched the monster realize that she was coming. The sudden turn of his head, the flash of his silver hair as it fell aside to reveal his white throat. She thought for an instant of altering her target and slitting that throat… but Maria wanted him… so she kept her coarse.

She saw the demon bring up his hand. The monster's claws drew a bright line across the air. She recognized it immediately… His deadly whip. But with a sudden furrowing of his brows he clenched his fist, snuffing out the light, and held his arm out to protect his face.

Why… had he withdrawn?

She slashed at the arm but he moved it just enough for her to miss.

He could have attacked.

She slashed again, this time meeting skin.

If he were to get a hold of her with his poison claws she'd be in danger... but he didn't try.

He pulled his arm back and hissed in pain. A dizzying wave washed over his vision as Sango cut once more, this time across his chest. He heaved forward. Each bloody wound burned as if packed with embers.

Sango pushed aside her questions and let her instincts guide her. She'd trained her entire life for this.

For moments… just… like… this.

Her father would have been proud. If only he could have seen it. Here she was, his little girl, besting the biggest, baddest beast.

Sango noticed him sway and sensed that he's lost his ability to see.

She sensed that… he was waiting.

He knew it had been but a split second, really. But as is the way with such things, it felt like forever. He seemed to have plenty of time to think over her motives. Humans were so strange. He'd saved her... SAVED her. Had he not? Is that not one way to win a human's trust? It had worked with Rin. But this demon slayer despised him. Perhaps that's all it took. She was raised to be one thing... Perhaps that's all she could be. Were humans really so inflexible? Really so blind to anything outside their own frame of reference? Was it really so, that if a human were taught something from youth that that it would never know any better... and never even try to? It seemed so now... as she plunged the little dagger into his spine.

He felt it slide sickeningly between two vertebra. Sesshoumaru arched his back reflexively before his legs gave out and crumpled under him. He was left sitting, slumped forward, propping himself up with one bleeding, shaking arm. His breath came in shallow gasps. He wanted to try to reach back and pull the blade free but he already knew his arm was too weak and too damaged. It was a strange sensation, being injured and not feeling his skin healing back together right away. Instead feeling its torn edges rub and slip against each other as he moved.

"Hurry, we need to get him through before the purifying powers kill him." He heard Kagome tell Sango.

He heard her voice catch.

The girls grab hold of him, one on each side and drag him across the floor on his knees. His heartbeat thrummed in his head.

Loudly. So loudly!

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't feel I need to repeat myself. You're hearing is more than perfect."

"Yeah, well, I don't believe it."

"Is the child's presence not proof enough?"

Inuyasha scowled.

"I don't mean that I don't believe he jumped in! I don't believe that he'd go in to save Sango!"

"But he did, Big Brother. He saw the lady get pulled in so he went in to save her!" little Rin insisted in defense of her guardian.

"Well either way, both he and Sango have gone through the well, despite the danger within, and Kagome's still not been back."

"How could you let this happen?" Inuyasha shouted angrily as he leapt onto the edge of the well. "It doesn't matter. I'll get the girls back!"

"What about lord Sesshoumaru?" Rin called after him.

"I think he's…"

A rush of movement thrust up and out of the well causing Inuyasha to forgo his sentence and stumble from his perch. The bright object traveled a ways into the sky before losing its upward momentum and plummeting back toward the females. The half-demon became a blur as he threw himself at them, drew his sword and deflected the object which imbedded itself with a loud "thunk" into a tree.

The three gazed at it breathlessly before…

"Toukijin!" Both Inuyasha and Rin exclaimed in unison.

Rin sprinted to the tree and took hold of the sword, yanking at it with all of her might, but, it wouldn't budge. Inuyasha walked up beside her, pondering the blade.

"Something's wrong…" she whimpered still trying to free the sword, "Something's happened to lord Sesshoumaru!" she said more desperately.

"Rin,"

The little girl turned her face up toward him when she heard her name. Large tears tumbled down her round cheeks from those wide brown eyes. Inuyasha sighed inwardly.

"What would Sesshoumaru think if he saw you now?"

Rin suddenly straightened with a gasp and hurriedly wiped her face dry with the palms of her hands.

"He'd tell me to be brave… Because, I'm his ward." Rin looked up at him with new found resolve. They weren't so different, she thought. Not after all. His long white hair, his golden eyes, his determination.

Inuyasha took hold of Toukijin and pulled it from the tree.

"Right. If you're going to follow him around you've got to expect to have your courage tested and I think you can handle this." He paused, "I'll get them back…" he told her, "All of them."

…

Sango and Kagome worked together to heave the heavy monster to his feet but Kagome knew there was no way they were going to get him out of the well. There was water, just a few inches, in the bottom. She could never remember there being water in the Bone Eater's Well. It must have rained a lot while she was gone. They slipped on the slick footing and struggled to stay upright.

Sesshoumaru suddenly grunted and Kagome looked up in search of what had caused it. He'd been silent since they'd gotten their hands on him.

A hand had taken hold of his arm… A clawed hand.

Kagome gasped in surprise, her hold on Sesshoumaru instinctively tightened.

"Let go," She heard Sango say and felt her friend try to pull her away.

"What's going on?" she asked hurriedly.

She felt Sesshoumaru's muscles tense under her hands as his weight was shifted and lifted.

The Gwyllgi clung to the inside of the well above them. His long black hair hung heavily over his shoulders as he pulled the demon lord upward.

Kagome clung to him as long as she was able but the Gwyllgi was so much stronger.

As soon as Sesshoumaru had been lifted out and was no longer in sight Kagome grabbed Sango by the shoulders.

"What's going on?" she shrilled.

"Kagome please, trust me. Just hear her out." Sango shrugged off her hands and hurried out of the well, Kagome followed close behind.

Boulders, grasses, moss, crumbling ruins and the sea… the sea… She smelt of the sea.

Oh god!

Kagome's eyes found the dog lord as quickly as she could. He sat slumped at the feet of the Gwyllgi, not far away, unable to lay either back or forward because of the blade and the broken arrow. His head swam.

Then Kagome's gaze found Sango and found that Sango was already watching her.

"You… lied." She uttered.

"Kagome, please…" Sango began, but…

"He's beautiful."

Kagome turned sharply when she head the voice and found a stunning woman walking weightlessly toward them for the direction of the sea. Kagome took a few steps back, her eyes wide, for in one hand the woman held a long silver shaft that towered above her tipped with a hook.

"You're the one who attacked Sango and Sota!" Kagome cried out.

"Oh, you must mean the boy. He was fast, wasn't he?" she said with a small smile. "But if I'd known…" the woman began, "I never would have, of course." But as she spoke she wasn't looking at Kagome, she was looking at Sango.

Sango gave the woman a little nod.

"Sango?" Kagome began but didn't have time to finish.

"Oh, you've covered him in such blood. It's alright," the woman interrupted, "these dog demons heal so quickly. Don't you?" she said looking over at him.

"Who are you?" Kagome asked.

"I suppose I've become a collector, but you may call me Maria." She stepped closer to Sesshoumaru, "Oh!" she exclaimed, "His arm... What a shame." She added with a pout.

"A shame?" Sango asked.

"He's broken."

"Broken?" Kagome repeated with a deep furrow between her brows and a little snicker, feeling insulted for him. "He's the most powerful demon I've ever known!"

"Than how is it he was overtaken by two human girls?"

"He… trusted me." Kagome admitted quietly, feeling quite sick. "And I'll never forgive myself for letting him." she said even quieter. "What do you want with him?" she suddenly demanded.

"Well, he's not as perfect as I first thought, so I suppose I don't want him for much now. They must be pure. Must be like my Gwyllgi." She knelt before Sesshoumaru, looking into his narrow amber eyes, she could tell he was unable to see. "Such a shame that he's not just right." she reached a hand out and brushed the hair away from his face. "But... I never
let anything go to waste. I know you dog demons live for such long times... so, I'll have your youth when you die," She ran a finger from his temple, along his jaw, to the tip of his chin, "which won't be long now." Maria turned and looked toward Sango, "You say there are more in that place? That past you spoke of?" She asked with a smile.

"Sango... What did you tell her!"

"She just wants demons, Kagome, like she has her Gwyllgi. She controls them and keeps them from hurting people."

"I really don't think that's what's going one here!"

"Dog, hold him still. Let us hasten this process. He has hundreds of years left and I want them now."

The Gwyllgi said something faintly in Gaelic before doing as his master ordered.

Kagome looked around the ground for her bow and arrows. She had to stop them!

"Let him die, Kagome," she heard Sango say.

"It's my fault he's here. I have to stop this. Rin needs him." she said quickly. Kagome suddenly remembered that her weapons must still be at the bottom of this new well.

"Rin's with Kaede." Sango argued, "With Kaede! Can you really think of a better role model? Maria doesn't want him. She's right. He's broken. He's always been broken. Think of all the lives he's taken. Human lives!" she paused, "Let him die, Kagome." She said more calmly.

"Sango... What's wrong with you?" Kagome exclaimed backing away, toward the well. She had to arm herself. She had to fight for him.

In one quick motion she turned and threw herself back into the well. The water splashed up around her as her feet hit the slick floor. Her hands fumbled through the water. There was her bow. She clutched it tight. But where were her arrows?

Reality shivered.

No! No… she couldn't go. She had to find her arrows and get back out.

There they were. A feather bobbed at the waters surface. She reached for it.

The world blackened and shifted.

"No!" Kagome shouted. She gripped the bow in one fist, the arrows in the other, helpless to stop the well. But this wasn't her well. This was something else. Would she be able to get back to him again? "No, no, no, no, no!" she shouted.

"Kagome?" she heard. She opened her eyes. The well was dry. She looked up.

"Inuyasha!"

"I was just about to come save you."

"Toukijin! Its here!" She noticed the sword in Inuyasha's hand. "Jump in! We need to go!"

Inuyasha didn't hesitate. Almost as soon as his feet hit the floor time warped around them and they found themselves looking up at… the inside of the shrine of the Bone Eater's Well.

"No! We're in my time!"

"Isn't this where we were going?" Inuyasha asked tilting his head a little to look down at her.

"No!"

"Wait, now this thing goes somewhere else?"

"It did! When Sango and I pulled Sesshoumaru in, just a moment ago, it took up to this place near the sea. How do we get back there?"

"You left Sango with Sesshoumaru? He'll kill her." Inuyasha hissed.

"No, she'll kill him. Or she may have through her actions." She paused, there was a strange sound. Kagome pulled both her bow and her quiver on over her head and across her chest before climbing out of the well.

"What?" he barked, "That's crazy, how would she even do that?"

Sesshoumaru's Moko Moko writhed upon the floor.

"She met someone, some strange woman called Maria. I don't know for sure but I think she has some power to open passages through wells. Maria said she's a collector. She wants more demons. But she considers Sesshoumaru broken because of his missing arm. She's going to kill him and take his youth." Kagome said as she thought.

It curled and twisted in on itself.

"Let her." Inuyasha grumbled.

Kagome scooped up the length of contorting fur and bent over the well to look down at him.

"Shut up, Inuyasha! Just shut up! It's my fault that all this happened. It's my damn fault for believing her! Sango lied to me and to his credit he didn't! He did nothing but help me and I let him down, even turned on him! Now, you can either help me get both of them back, or you can stay here and mope like a jealous little jerk!" Kagome screamed at him. "And you listen to me, if you come with me and we fight her there she might close the well and we won't be able to get back home. We need to grab Sesshoumaru and get back here or to your time right away. Then… Oh, I don't have a plan after that, but damn it, at least we'll be on our own ground!"

"…Do you think she'll follow us back through?" He asked slowly.

Kagome nodded.

"With Sango, I hope." She added.

Inuyasha looked at her with distant golden eyes.

"… What are you going to do with that?" he asked.

"This thing has some sort of bond with Sesshoumaru. Maybe it can lead the way back to him." Kagome said as she jumped into the well. She took a deep breath waiting a moment for the well to move them.

"…He never lies," Inuyasha said quietly.

She had just enough time before the darkness took them to look up at him. His expression was peaceful.

"I know that now." she whispered.

…

A faded gray daylight met to them both and Kagome saw Inuyasha turn to say something to her. She threw her finger against her lips and pointed upward as the Moko Moko curled and extended toward the sky. Inuyasha was quiet.

The half demon furrowed his brows… and smiled.

They looked up. A wisp of silver hair fluttered over the opening. Sesshoumaru was leaning against the well.

A horrifying thought crossed Kagome's mind… What if the Gwyllgi caught their scent and alerted Maria? What if they killed Sesshoumaru before they could grab him?

... Or… What if they already had?

She watched Inuyasha sniff the air.

"He knows we're here." He whispered.

"How do you know?" she said softly.

"His scent is changing. There's more… what did you call it?"

"Adrenaline," she finished for him.

"Yeah, that stuff. There's more of that in it." he whispered as he slid Toukijin into his waistband, "Do you have a plan now?"

"No, but it looks like he knows what he wants. Just be as quick as you can. We have no time." She said pointing up.

A ghostly pale hand draped itself over the lip of the well.

Inuyasha's muscles tensed and he shifted his weight when, in a heartbeat, he was moving. Before his feet even found a spot to land he'd drawn his sword.

Kagome stepped back as his form vanished beyond view. She saw flashed of red, Inuyasha's sleeve, and a woman cried out. She couldn't tell if it was Maria or Sango… She hoped it wasn't Sango.

A shadow blotted out the light just before Inuyasha dropped with a thud in front of her. His bloodied half brother slung over his shoulder by the back of his shirt.

"Damn it, Inuyasha, you're choking him." Kagome said as she grabbed her friend's hand. Inuyasha released his grip just as the air around the trio began to ripple. Sesshoumaru slid to the floor, landed on his knees and slumped against the side. The space within the well blackened and again they were weightless. Kagome had Inuyasha's hand still, but when she reached for the dog lord, found him just a little too far… and drifting further.

A frightened flutter in her chest. She couldn't lose him again, not in here to the vastness of time and infinity. She took the Moko Moko from it's place tucked under her arm and let it twist, as it longed to, out toward him. It wrapped itself like a mother's tight embrace of her long lost child around his waist. Kagome gave it a soft tug and the both of them were pulled back to her, slipping through the nothing. She let go of the Moko Moko, knowing that it wasn't about to lose it's grip on it's master again as it slid up to it's home on his shoulder and settled there. Kagome took tight hold of his arm.

"One more time." She whispered to herself as she clutched the silver haired demon close.

A heartbeat seemed an hour before they were softly left at the bottom of yet another well. Kagome held her breath before looking up and hoping with all her might that the familiar forest of the long past would be above her when she did.

It was!

"Let's get out of here, quick!" she said hurriedly.

Inuyasha scooped up the dog demon and hopped out. He set his brother down before reaching back in to pull Kagome up.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" they heard a voice cry out.

Both turned to see Kaede grab Rin, keeping her from running to her lord.

"Stay put, child. There is danger!"

Inuyasha pulled Kagome away for the side of the well just before the Gwyllgi erupted from it in a wash of shadows. The gray daylight seemed to shiver.

Kagome made a lunge for Sesshoumaru but before she could the black haired demon landed between them.

"I may not like him much," Inuyasha roared with a scoff toward his half brother, "but I'll be damned if anyone but me ends up being the one to kill him!" with that he launched himself at his newest opponent.

The two clashed swords just as Maria and Sango emerged from the well.

"Kagome!" Kaede called.

Kagome, unable to reach Sesshoumaru, turned from the fighting and ran to the old miko's side.

"Rin was right, not to trust Sango… I looked everywhere for something that could cut a curse like hers. I can see it, the ties that string them together, Sango and that strange woman! But the only thing I know that would have done the job was taken… by Sesshoumaru."

"Was it a small dagger?"

Kaede nodded.

"I've seen it! Sesshoumaru…" she glanced down at Rin, "…has it now." She ran toward the form of the dog lord. Hunched over and shaking. Inuyasha and the Gwyllgi had moved just enough for her to make her way around to the dog lord.

"Another one! How Beautiful he is." Kagome heard Maria exclaim as she reached Sesshoumaru's side.

His half-brother and the Gwyllgi had stepped in battle between the two women and their bleeding target.

"I'm going to pull out the dagger," she breathed taking hold of his shoulder. He pulled away weakly, seemingly startled by her sudden presence. She reached for it despite that and. "Bear with me,"

He gasped loudly when Kagome yanked the tiny blade from his spine. A rippling dizziness enveloped him.

Inuyasha's blade drove toward the Gwyllgi as the two moved away and back toward one another again, leaving the space between the women the Kagome open.

Kagome Jumped to her feet, the blood covered weapon felt small even in her little hand.

"What spell? I don't see it? How am I supposed to cut it away?" she hissed to herself.

Maria and Sango began to move toward her.

"Little lady… Pretty little woman…" Maria cooed, "You know that I won't let you stand in my way. I'll have the youth of that broken male," She said before looking toward Inuyasha. "And he'll be mine too,"

"Joke's on you," Kagome chuckled, fingers tightening to white around the handle, "He's half human." With that she rushed forward, planning to plant the little dagger in the water witch's chest.

Sango stepped between them.

Kagome couldn't stop in time and ran straight into her. Sango grabbed hold of her arm and twisted it upward.

"Let her have him!" she snarled. "He's a worthless monster!"

Kagome saw Sesshoumaru look toward them. He dug his bloody claws into his skin, trying to pull the rest of the arrow out. His vision was a sickening wash of swirling colors and his fingers weak.

"Lord Sesshoumaru…" he heard a tiny voice call.

"Rin, stay away!" He growled.

But the little girl was there in a heartbeat, clutching to his arm.

"Why are you hurt? Why aren't you healing?" she asked him quickly.

He dug at the arrow.

Inuyasha snarled at the Gwyllgi and the Gwyllgi snarled back. Their swords met and met again. Inuyasha studied the strange dog demon, how he bobbed and moved fluidly away from each attack. The half demon hadn't needed to fight any dog demons other than his own brother. He'd never known his father and a bit of him had always wondered what another dog demon would be like.

Impressive… would have been the word he'd had used if he'd been asked to speak it aloud. How had that woman been able to capture and control someone like this?

He took a deep breath. There had to be something… and there it was. A smell of magic. Not of a demon's demonic aura but of something other and unnatural to the Gwyllgi. But where on his body was it kept?

"Stop fighting… me!" Inuyasha huffed deflecting the other's swing. "I know you're not fighting because you want to." He struck out halfheartedly to drive the demon back. "Where's the thing she's controlling you with?" he asked.

The Gwyllgi grunted before charging again. He tilted his head as he did, his hair drawing back from the side of his neck revealing there a collar of woven twine.

That's it!

He couldn't use his big sword. Not enough finesse. He'd end up taking his head off.

Maria strode around Sango and Kagome as they wrestled for the dagger.

Inuyasha sidestepped the Gwyllgi and rushed for the two struggling women. He tore the blade from Kagome's hand just as Sango wrapped her arm around the young miko's neck. He jumped back toward the black haired demon, who'd changed his course to meet him half way and clashed swords again.

Rin gazed down with wide eyes horror at what her lord was doing to himself. She set a small hand on his… stilling it. Sesshoumaru's fingers trembled under hers.

"Please don't," she said softly pressing her other palm against the wound.

Inuyasha roared as he lunged in at the Gwyllgi, swinging the dagger across and up, skimming it along his neck, missing slitting it by a hair's breath. Up and under the collar which frayed, snapped and fell away.

The Gwyllgi staggered back and stood gasping.

"Are you done?" Inuyasha shouted, not yet ready to turn his back on what might still be an enemy.

But the Gwyllgi only looked back at him with astonishment.

Maria laughed loudly.

"I've seen you before," she sneered.

Sesshoumaru reached out his trembling arm and pulled his little ward close, though Rin looked straight at the strange woman defiantly.

"Yes, I've seen you before!" she chuckled, "I might as well not let you go to waste with so many years ahead of you. I'll have them too, won't I?"

The hair on the back of the dog lord's neck stood on end.

"But first, I'll take this broken dog's." Maria spoke the words as she grabbed hold of the back of Rin's clothes and tore the child from the demons weak grasp. The water witch tossed the child aside, who landed with a thud on the hard ground. Rin almost instantly sat back up with one hand pressed against a bloody nose and the other clutching… a blood covered arrowhead.

Sesshoumaru thrust his powerful arm upward, grabbing her by the throat and drawing her violently to the ground. She gasped and sputtered as they both got back to their feet. He stood, stretching out his back… drawing in a full breath for the first time in what seemed like eternity as he was warmed by the sensation of his body pulling itself back together.

"How dare you touch her, human." He growled out every syllable.

"I'm far more than just human, you bitter little dog!"

She rushed at him, a power thrumming from her own hands, which seared his skin through the thin linen of his battered button up shirt. He took her by the arm and threw her against the well with a heavy blow.

The Gwyllgi was there, the terrible little dagger in his upheld first.

"You worthless beast, you can't hur…" But her words were cut short when she screamed… and he plunged the blade into her heart.

Sango released her grip on Kagome who gasped for air, before the demon slayer fell to her knees. Kagome knelt in front of her.

"Sango? Sango, are you alright?"

"Oh, Kagome," Sango began with tear filled eyes, "What have I done?"

Kagome wrapped her arms around her shaking friend.

The Gwyllgi yanked the dagger back out. She had just enough time to clutch at her chest just before he shoved her down into the well. Then he turned to look at the others, smiled and nodded just a little as he tossed the dagger onto the ground, and jumped into the well after her.

Everything fell silent and everyone was still.

Without warning, Inuyasha ran to the edge of the well and leapt in.

The rest held their breath.

Rin stood, inspected a skinned knee and wiped the blood from her nose. The great dog lord twisted to look over at her and as she began to walk to him, met the child half way.

The stoic beast knelt from his height in front of the little girl. The tattered clothing and dark red stains that marred his frame did little to detract from his haunting elegance.

"I've never… never seen anything like it. The child's not even his and yet… Amazing." Kaede whispered silently to herself.

"I'm alright," Rin said without needing to be asked.

He stood and straightened as the last broken rib popped into its rightful place.

She held the arrowhead out for the dog lord to take but he shook his head.

"Why not?" she asked.

"It will burn me." He told her quietly.

She frowned down at the thing in her hand, suddenly realizing the formidable power it contained. What a horrible thing it was… what a horrible thing that could hurt her Lord Sesshoumaru.

"It belongs to Kagome. Give it back to her.

Kagome hurried to the edge and waited. A long, heavy moment passed before he came climbing back out. He halted halfway.

"There's no sign of them." Inuyasha said looking down to her, "This only lead to your time and back again, just like it used to." He explained. He pulled himself up and out, dragging a heap of white and with him. He handed the bundle to her.

Sesshoumaru's clothes and other sword.

"Oh, Inuyasha, thank you."

"They were right there in the shrine. Figured I'd save you the trip."

She nodded and smiled softly as he handed her the bundle. With that she turned on her heel and hurried toward the dog lord.

"Sessh…"

But with a narrowing of his eyes, he'd turned away. As he began to walk off Rin stooped to wipe the blood from her hands on the grass and hurried to Kagome.

"This is yours," she said holding the arrowhead up for her to take. "How did it end up in Lord Sesshoumaru?" she asked bluntly.

Kagome just stood there, lips parted. What was she supposed to say?

"It was…" she began, "I made a terrible mistake." Kagome admitted looking after him.

"Here," Rin said holding it up a little higher.

Kagome took it but Rin left her arms outstretched. Kagome set the tight bundle of smooth white clothes and the long sword in her little hands. She tucked it under her arm and went to follow Sesshoumaru.

"Hey, bastard! Catch!" Inuyasha called out.

Sesshoumaru sensed the familiar blade falling toward him and held out his hand just in time to snatch it from the air.

Sango balled her small hands into tight fists, gathered together all of her courage, and went after him.

"Lord Sesshoumaru… Please wait,"

He stopped but didn't turn to face her. Sango cautiously walked around him, his eyes following her as she came to stand squarely before him. In one fluid motion she dropped to her knees and bowed her head to the earth.

"I apologize. I am so sorry. I didn't know what she'd done to me. It was as if part of myself were asleep. When I heard her talk it was as if in a dream and I couldn't help but believe that she was right. Even if part of me questioned her, I couldn't not trust in her… I am sorry."

"You are a demon slayer." He said. His lack of emotion had always startled her.

"…Yes."

"Killing blindly is what demon slayers do." The dog lord stepped around her.

"It's not." Sango said hopping back up and following him.

"I have witnessed many. Killing is all I have seen of them." he heard her stop following. "You are rash. You act without thinking. I do not mean demon slayers… I mean you… Sango." His voice rolling over her name made her skin crawl. "Someday you will hurt someone… Someone undeserving."

"…I won't." she said quietly as he left her behind. "I'm not a monster." She told him a little louder.

But his heavy voice came back…

"Aren't you?"

"I won't, oh god, I won't…" she whispered, tears dripping from the point of her chin.

Kagome rushed by in what Sango could only comprehend as a blur.

She ran as fast as her legs would carry her until she'd caught up with Sesshoumaru.

His arm extended quickly out to one side in a graceful arc. She instantly recognized the flicker of bright yellow at the tips of his claws and had the presence of mind to duck as his wrist flicked the whip of light back at her. The burning strand curled its way over her head before vanishing to nothing.

Her heart raced as she staggered to get back to her feet.

"Se… Sesshoumaru… I never meant anything like that to happen to you. I didn't know who to believe. I'm so sorry for what I did!"

"Filthy humans," she heard him snarl under his breath.

Rin turned to looked at her, she glanced up at Sesshoumaru and hesitated only a moment before leaving her lords side and scampering back to Kagome. The dog demon continued to walk on without his little ward.

"Lord Sesshoumaru believes that humans spend too much time apologizing when forethought could save them from making mistakes in the first place." Her voice suddenly became soft and she stepped closer, clutching the white bundle tight. "Don't worry, Kagome. Lord Sesshoumaru can't stay mad at you for long… He likes you too much."

Kagome opened her mouth to say something but at first no words would come to her.

"He…he said that?" she stammered.

"Oh no, but he doesn't have to," Rin smiled and bowed just a little, "He visits the well all the time." she said.

"But, Rin, I… hurt him."

"Just wait. You'll see. He always comes back." Rin beamed before spinning on the ball of her little foot and hurrying to catch up with him.

…Him.

…He visits the well often?

Kagome felt her cheeks flush. She threw her hands up to her face, pressing them against her fair skin. It wasn't just the once? It wasn't just by chance that he'd been there and discovered Maria's power… He'd been visiting… often.

She looked down at the little weapon in her hand. The broken arrowhead stained dusky red with his blood.

What bond they once had, she'd cut and slashed and sliced to shreds… with this small thing? How was that possible? It fit in her hand and he was so powerful…

She lowered her head.

"Come on, Kagome. Sango's a mess. We're going to take her back to the village. Don't worry about him. He hates everyone. At least he hates you for a reason."

"I'm alright, Inuyasha. I'll be right along." She told him. He nodded and turned away. "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you… I know you didn't want to help him."

"Yeah well,… I didn't do it for him." Inuyasha said as he walked off and without looking back.

Kagome let her eyes follow them, watched as Kaede retrieved the sacred dagger from the grass, as Inuyasha pulled the sobbing Sango onto his back and as they began away. Turning her attention back to the arrowhead, she closed her fingers in around it; Its point and razor edges threatening to bite into her skin.

She'd ruined it. Whatever connection she's worked so hard to form during his first visit to her time had been destroyed. The trust she'd built in order to convince him to let her help save his life, she'd snuffed it out. She'd almost taken the very life she'd worked to save. She felt so stupid.

Of course he wouldn't lie… Why would the great Sesshoumaru ever need to lie? How could she ever have doubted him?

She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and folded in over the broken weapon and over it again before tucking them both away. She held her hand there, against the side of her skirt.

But he… visited the well?

Rin had told her so and how could she not trust Rin after all of this? She was his ward. And since she was telling the truth… Kagome had hope.

"He always comes back," Kagome repeated the child.

Yes, Kagome would make it right again. She had no idea how, but she'd find a way. There was simply no way she could let them return to being adversaries. She knew their paths would cross again someday. Maybe she'd return from the future and find him there, standing by the well.

She'd make it right… She had to.

He meant too much to her.

"I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru. I'll find a way to make it up to you." She said out loud but to herself. She sighed sadly then turned and went to follow the others.

The gray morning light filtered dimly through the canopy of the forest. The leaves rustled and all seemed quiet… at peace. Hidden away, a figure in white watched the departing miko as he tied the sash tight around his waist.

Rin handed him the pants and battered white shirt, folded and rolled together. He took the items and waited for his ward to grab hold of his empty sleeve before he began to walk.

"What will you do with those? Toss them away?"

"No. They are not mine to discard."

"No?"

"They belong to Kagome's Grandfather."

"But you won't return them to her now?"

"Hm,"

"Then when?"

"Perhaps next time…" he paused, "Next time we pass by the well."

And the little girl smiled.