Inuyasha and his friends ran towards the fading scent of Tsukiko and though they had been running most of the night and he was tired, he pushed on unwilling to yield to his crying muscles until Tsukiko's body was back in their possession. He ignored the complaining and pleading from the others to stop and focused only on Tsukiko. He wouldn't let Sesshomaru violate her body for his selfish reasons. She deserved better than whatever Sesshomaru had planned for her. Much better.

"Sit!" Kagome's voice rang out like a knife through his soul as he hurtled to the ground not of his own accord. Damn that woman!

"I'm sorry, Inuyasha." she said softly as he sat up properly, "We're all tired..."

"Don't touch me!" he demanded slapping her hand away. Kagome shrank back, a hurt expression on her face. He felt bad for it, but he couldn't afford to rest until Tsukiko was back with them. He would do the same for any of the others. With a sigh he stood,

"You guys wait here. I'll go on ahead." he told them, "Catch up if you can." Without waiting for a response he continued his quest for their fallen friend.

Darkness consumed her, biting and gnawing relentlessly at her very soul. Sharp nails raked over her skin roughly as if their aim was to pull it from her. An image of a man appeared before her. He was twisted and deformed, blood and puss oozed from deep wounds all over his body and his skin was flaking off.

"You will fall far from grace, Child of Light. Your path will cause you to descend into darkness and once you are there, we will consume you from the inside out until you are nothing but a husk, a shell of yourself. When we are finished with you, not even your Demon will want you. You will be death itself, harboring hate and Mother to evil." he spoke like a snake, his long tongue flicked out to lick her face, "The Lord of Evil will claim you and your purity..."

Tsukiko shot up like a bolt. Cold sweat dripped from her skin making her shiver more so than she already was. It was just a dream, nothing but a nightmare. A nightmare that felt so real.

"Tsukiko?" the familiar low voice calmed her frayed nerves instantly. She thought he had left her but was relieved that he hadn't.

"Just a dream." she replied trying to convince herself as well as Sesshomaru.

"You're shaking." he replied not believing her words. Tsukiko wished that just once he would believe her lie instead of knowing her as well as he did.

"Don't worry, it really was just a dream." she said stubbornly insisting he believe her lie. His golden eyes glowed in the darkness as he stared at her, resisting would be useless.

"There was man but he wasn't human, his body had been broken and reformed the wrong way. He told me...he told me I would fall into darkness and become death incarnate..."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Sesshomaru said after a moment, "You are the daughter of a Goddess who is light itself, how can you become darkness?"

"Just as the sun must give way to the moon," she whispered softly looking at her shivering hands, "There is darkness in all light as there is light in the dark."

"Did your mother tell you that?" Sesshomaru asked, his tone mocking. Tsukiko looked into his cold eyes,

"There is balance to all things. No one is ever completely evil nor completely good." she told him earnestly. Sesshomaru chuckled darkly,

"Are you trying to convince me that there is good inside my soul, or yourself?" he asked.

"I am simply telling the truth. I've never thought of you as someone who is pure evil. If you were you would never have brought me back with your sword."

"The truth..." Sesshomaru hummed thoughtfully, "Go to sleep. You need your rest."

Tsukiko gave him a look but complied with the demon's wishes. That night he didn't sleep - instead he watched over her, a silent guardian, they way he'd always done. Her words had struck something within him however, and the thought slowly began to gnaw at him, stripping his impregnable sheild layer by layer.

Inuyasha was far ahead of his companions, his speed was greatly due to his half demon powers and the unrelenting need to retrieve someone important to him. The only thing that stopped him was exhaustion. He'd been running endlessly for almost two nights, his body could no longer sustain his want. Yet he pushed on wearily, making his legs move with will power alone.

"Tsukiko..." he called to the night sky, praying that he would be able to find her soon. His knees buckled, unable to carry him any longer and he collapsed on the ground in a heap. The stars reminded him of when he'd first come across her; she was bathing in the moonlight and he'd been ever so thirsty. He couldn't react when he saw her for fear she would retaliate. But instead she gave him a smile, even when he'd threatened her after discovering she was the daughter of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. Tsukiko had treated him like an equal, she didn't shun him for his ears or humanness. She, aside from his own mother, had been kind and it was that kindness that made him so desperate to get her body back.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome's voice rang in his ears, waking the sleeping half-demon. He sat up and yawned, his eyes scanned his surroundings lazily. He was surrounded by dense forest on either side, so thick he could barely see past the first three rows of treeline. The early morning sun's rays warmed his skin as sleep slowly left him. With a gasp he jumped to his feet, his legs crying out in pain; he'd fallen asleep and wasted valuable time.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome's voice was closer now, "There you are." He turned to see her, Miroku and Sango walking up over the rise towards him, Shippo was sleeping in Kagome's basket.

"Kagome, I-I fell asleep..." he admitted, "I was just so tired from running."

"I thought something terrible had happened to you." she replied with genuine concern in her eyes. Inuyasha lowered his head, ashamed and embarrassed he'd made her worry about him. He hated doing that to Kagome, but he had a particular image to uphold.

"I'm fine." he told her without looking at her. Turning towards the rising sun, he ignored the pain in his body and kept pushing forward with his companions at his back.

Tsukiko sighed in her sleep. Sesshomaru wondered what she was dreaming about as the sun rose in the sky. He didn't particularly want to wake her, but they would need to get moving soon. He couldn't risk his brat of a half-brother stumbling upon them, not when Tsukiko hadn't fully recovered yet. Jaken crawled out from beneath a near by shrubbery and studied the demi-god with a look of disgust.

"Sesshomaru-sama, why did you bring her back to life?" he asked, "N-not that I'm questioning you, I would never do that-"

"I couldn't let her die." he replied calmly, repeating the words she'd told him, "She's...important to me."

"But she's a demi-god!" Jaken protested. True, it was an odd thing for him, a demon, to say about a demi-god however she was important to him and he was only just beginning to realize how deeply she affected him. Tsukiko moaned quietly, her sleep having been disturbed by his minion's shouting, but she didn't wake.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand the complexity of the situation, Jaken." the demon replied rising gracefully and moving to crouch beside the sleeping woman. He rested a hand gently on her shoulder, an action which woke her immediately. She stared up at him with eyes as blue as the sea, such as small action jolted him to the core and he quickly stepped back. Tsukiko didn't notice though and sat up.

"Are we leaving?" she asked him in a voice that sounded like she'd been awake for hours instead of seconds. He nodded once and started walking. Tsukiko didn't protest as he left her behind, he knew she would follow him anyway as she'd done for the past two days. He wondered whether she would eventually just leave him, drift away like the wind, back to the brat and his companions. It was inevitable in the long run, he wouldn't expect her to stay by his side forever. Tsukiko, after all, was a demi-god - good in every sense - and he, a demon, darkness, evil. Things demi-god's and gods alike despised. With these new emotions plaguing him, he wondered what new feeling would take hold of him when she left. Would he feel jealous? Betrayed? Would he care at all?

Yet still she followed him through the forest, walking silently in his footsteps. His memory flitted back to when they had first come across each other. They were both young, children in fact. Tsukiko had been wilder then, free spirited and filled with fire. Truly a magnificent sight to behold. She had wandered into his father's territory and approached a young Sesshomaru freely, without fear or restraint. When he'd threatened to destroy her, she smiled and threw fire at him. It had missed, though he later learned she'd done it on purpose, and hit a nearby boulder, heating it and making it burst. Her strength had interested him at that time and they'd fought. Neither had won before Sesshomaru's mother pulled him away. The next day, Tsukiko was back only when he tried to resume the fight, she'd declined. She had told him she found no joy in trying to hurt him. This had confused the boy who believed all good must fight evil. But since she no longer wanted to fight him, he'd left in search of other things to test his strength against. Tsukiko, to his surprise, had followed him. Every day after that, she would find him and follow him around in silence until one day he asked her why.

Because I like you had been her answer. He still questioned her reasoning behind it but had given up directly asking her for she had no answer to give him. At least not one she could explain and so he had permitted her to continue to follow him.

"You're thinking about the past, aren't you?" Tsukiko commented as she fell in step beside him. His face betrayed no emotion nor did he reply to her. He didn't need to, Tsukiko could tell in the way his eyes were calm. Though her dreams plagued her sleep now, she felt at peace by his side once again. When she was with Inuyasha, she was constantly worried that he would get himself killed. The boy was strong, far stronger than he realized - but he was impatient and arrogant. He cared for his friends, yes, but he ran into danger without a second thought for his own life. An admirable trait, and one that saw many die before his time.

Yet Sesshomaru was strong, calculative and calm. He would never risk his own life unless he believed it was necessary. Of course that wasn't exactly a great trait to have, but it did mean Tsukiko could trust him to always come back. She loved Inuyasha, she loved Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Shippo as well. But the bond she had formed with Sesshomaru was stronger in ways she couldn't explain. She had given her life to save Sesshomaru from himself and used the last of her strength to protect her friends. She hadn't expected to be resurrected, and yet Sesshomaru had brought her back from death. She owed him her life in the literal sense. She was his now until the debt was repaid.

"May I ask you something?" she said once they'd stopped to make camp again. The demon looked up from the fire light into her eyes and waited for her to continue, "Why did you bring me back?"

Sesshomaru let out a quite breath, "Isn't it obvious?" he asked her. Tsukiko frowned at him, the only thing obvious to her was that Sesshomaru didn't do anything without it benefiting him in the end. He had once even saved Inuyasha's life only because he felt his brother wasn't yet strong enough to test his real strength. But what use did Tsukiko have for him? He knew she would never kill the boy, even if her life belonged to him now.

"I brought you back to own your life." he told her with a steady gaze, "I will find a use for your powers even if you refuse to kill Inuyasha."

It was a cruel lie, Sesshomaru knew that the moment he'd said it but he couldn't tell her the truth. He wasn't ready to admit it to himself, he was far from ready to be able to tell her that he needed her alive in this world, whether she be with him or not, knowing she drew breath still was enough for him. He would die before he would have her blood on his hands.

Tsukiko smiled at the fire, although in its amber light she looked sad, "I had thought as much." she said. He stared at her face through the flames, Tsukiko had never been the same after the death of her father, a human man whose name Sesshomaru had never learned. One day she hadn't met him in the forest nor did she come the months that followed. And then, many years after her disappearance, there she was - long white hair flowing freely in the gentle wind, waiting for him. But she had lost the fire that had burned so brightly inside her, instead he saw only sadness. A sadness that stayed with her even now - always there lurking behind her kind smile and gentle blue gaze. He wondered if that was the reason she had chosen Inuyasha over him - they were both half-breeds. Part human and part something else, both losing their human parents and distant from their demon and godly ones. Where Inuyasha's sense of loss came out in violent and angry outbursts, Tsukiko's was a constant sadness hidden behind a smile and kindness.

"Tsukiko..." he began making the girl look up from the fire, but anything he wanted to say died on his tongue. What could he tell her? That everything he'd just said was a lie? That the only thing he really needed of her was for her to keep living in the world? No. Weakness. He would not abide weakness. Yet he couldn't quell the ache in his chest seeing her so sad and because of him.

"Get some sleep." was all he said as he stood from the ground and disappeared into the darkness, leaving her alone once more. Tsukiko watched his back until he'd been fully encompassed by shadow and then turned back to the fire. She had expected his answer but hearing him confirm her thoughts was more painful than she'd realized. She had known he was selfish and ambitious, yet she had thought that emotion besides hate and anger stirred beneath his calm exterior. Trivial...Sympathetic...Those were the words he had used, words he had never spoken before. Perhaps she was wrong in assuming he cared about her even in the slightest. Perhaps he never did and merely kept her around out of boredom.

"What am I to you?" she asked the fire as if it held all the questions in the universe. But no answer came, not from it, not from her mother...not from him.

This was overdue, that's for sure. I recently (and by recently mean a few hours ago) got back into InuYasha and decided paying attention to this was probably on the cards. Thank you to everyone who has followed and favourited, and to those who've left reviews. I haven't forgotten about this story and I'll try to keep updating it as much as I can.