Chapter 1
The trio, as close as brothers, stood on the hill looking over the cemetery that held the grave of one's executed biological brother. Their silver and blonde hair flew in the breeze, and their eyes flashed in hatred, directed at everything but each other.
One was tall and aristocratic. His fine, almost feminine features were set in a frozen mask. His cold golden eyes and knee length silver hair were both outside of human norms, and that was fine as he wasn't and never has been human. He was Sesshoumaru, the killing perfection. He was a demon, in the Japanese sense of the word. Not a worker of evil for the devil, but just a nature spirit that is superior to humans.
Another was also tall and aristocratic, but had a more masculine cast to his features. He had the darkest hair of the group, which didn't mean much with his wild honey blond hair cut to chin length and spiked up, elegantly of course. God forbid the ex-Goblin King Jareth be anything other than elegant. His eyes, one crystalline blue and the other violet purple, looked out with a mixture of cynic humor and despair, speaking eloquently of loss. No longer the Goblin King, not since Sara, but still one of the most powerful fey.
The last was the tallest of the group. His feature were hard and uncompromisingly male. Only the full and sensual lips and elegant curve of the nose kept him from being too masculine. His silver hair reached mid-thigh and was cut into sharp bangs framing his pale blue eyes looking out at the world with hatred. He was the only one who was once human, but that changed when a couple of scientists decided to perform experiments with alien DNA and human soldiers, thus creating the cold killer Sephiroth.
"So, Sesshoumaru, the stain on your family line is finally cleansed." Jareth said provokingly, anything to end the silence.
Golden eyes sharply glanced at him. "I am disappointed that I am the last pureblood left to carry on my father's legacy. Even though Inuyasha was a hanyou, and thus beneath my notice, he was of my father's blood and deserved respect from others."
"Speaking of legacies, what is to be done about your brother's pregnant widow? Your brother did not allow her any job training, believing that women should not work. Such an outdated idea. On my planet she would have been required to receive some sort of job training." Sephiroth's voice, just as hard as the rest of him, interrupted the conversation.
Sesshoumaru thought. "I suppose we shall have to put her up, since her house is being repossessed for gambling debts run up by my fool of a hanyou half brother and I see no reason to stop that process. She is carrying the heir to my family's fortune, so until I have one of my own her place is the family's ancestral home." he replied.
The other's nodded. All of them, though not blood brothers or even of the same species, were closer than most families and all lived in a large Japanese estate just outside of Tokyo, Sesshoumaru's ancestral home. The other two were homeless before Sesshoumaru found them. Jareth lost his castle and Labyrinth when he lost the game to Sara. Sephiroth, however, has never had a home, rather staying in the military bases of his world until his hatred of the world grew too much. He couldn't stand living in such close quarters with others who still believed in the rightness of their commanders and he found a way off of that planet.
Flashback
After he crossed over, he found himself in the middle of 1980's Tokyo. His senses afire, now that he was in a new world who knew what effect this world would have on his powers. He sensed other centers of power, but nowhere near this place. Not knowing what else to do, and desiring to learn more about this new place he found himself in, Sephiroth took to prowling the seedy bars and back alleys of Tokyo, almost feeding off of the despair and hopelessness in the air. He still sensed the other powers, but they were in the place that he found only the rich lived in. Wanting to avoid confronting the other powers until he learned more about them, he stayed only in the poorer sections.
One night, he felt something different. In one of the seedy harbor side bars he frequented, he felt power such as he had never felt. Drawn to it, the silver haired ex-SOLDIER went in. All of the patrons except one cowered back from the intimidating figure dressed in a leather trench coat, black wife beater and leather pants with black combat boots. He looked around. The power was centered around a pale golden haired figure dressed in tight black jeans, a black poet's shirt, black biker boots and black leather gloves. The man was slamming back pure vodka like it was water. Sephiroth walked up to him.
The man looked at him with dual colored eyes. Sephiroth was slightly taken aback by the despair in the man's eyes. "What do you want." he said in a rich baritone voice. "I can feel your power. Why do you sit here and do nothing?" Sephiroth said, curious about why this obviously powerful being would sit here and do nothing, while all of the other beings of power were living in the rich side of town, and curious about why he cared.
The man's eyes flashed. "I don't see how that is any of your business. Besides, I can also sense your power. Why do you do nothing?" he replied. Sephiroth shrugged. "I have found nothing worthy of wasting my time. I am from another world, where even the civilians are better warriors than the soldiers of this planet. I was made by scientists playing with genes from the calamity Jenova. I escaped that planet that I hate so much, to this one, which is even worse. This entire world is so worthless that I see no way to redeem it. And I am not going to waste my time trying to help the loathsome worms crawling about on the surface of the world." The other man nodded.
"I am Jareth. I was once a king with hundreds of servants to do my bidding, and a maze that none but myself could solve. But all of that changed when I tried to make a woman-child happy. She asked to be free of her responsibility, and when I took him away she wanted him back. I gave in and granted her desire for adventure, thinking she would be grateful and take away my loneliness by staying with me. But, she spoke that incantation and broke my power in the process. She returned here and my goblins rose against me, no longer trusting in my protection. I was cast out by the labyrinth itself, consigned to this world where the girl lived. I am still a prince of the Unseelie Sidhe court, but no longer a king in my own right. And, like you, I have no wish to rule over such worthless beings as humans. Even the lowest of my goblins could defeat a crowd of humans with the magic contained in it's pinkie."
"Then why do you both wander among the human's that you find so offensive?" They heard a deep, icy voice say. They both looked at the golden eyed stranger. He was definitely out of place in his three piece business suit and long silver hair that was shining even in the low light of the bar.
"I sense a mass of power in my domain and I come to find a pair of beings with such power and they are wasting it, staying amongst the humans that both claim to despise."
"Just who do you think you are, coming in here and saying such things." Sephiroth growled.
"I am Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands." He replied. "Why do you not come with me, and I can show you how to put your power to good use."
The other two looked at each other. "Well, I have nothing better to do. I suppose it is better to do something rather than nothing." Jareth replied.
Sephiroth also agreed, since he was becoming bored with noone to kill, and this 'Lord of the Western Lands' seemed like the kind of guy to have a lot of enemies, and maybe he would share some with Sephiroth.
That was three years ago. Sesshoumaru took both of the extremely dangerous beings in and taught them about the world they now found themselves in. They soon became as close as brothers. All of them were so alike, and instead of driving them to compete as it would others, it brought them closer.
They were all extremely hard and cold men, but they also had a center core of loneliness held within. Sesshoumaru had the urge to become the best that he could, to try and fill the void within himself, and he used this to become one of the most powerful people in the world. Kings and Presidents obeyed his commands, and every government in the world owed him money. He was the owner, main shareholder, CEO of Taisho corp., the most powerful company in the world.
The other two decided to help him in this endeavor. Not out of any desire to hold the same kind of power in the human world, but out of the desire to both be of some use to the demon that assisted them and to kill some of the most powerful humans in the world. Anything that could be a challenge and keep the encroaching boredom and loneliness from completely conquering their beings.
The outcast sidhe and the ex-SOLDIER soon became inseparable. They both looked upon Sesshoumaru as boss for the first year or two. But, when they came upon the demon drunk and raging about his father dying and his younger half brother getting custody of his younger sister Rin, the relationship dynamics changed. Sesshoumaru didn't hold onto his cold mask so much in their presence, becoming just a little less uptight. Jareth's smooth and sarcastic conversation helped a lot. Sephiroth's ability to give him a challenge in the dojo helped almost as much.
Their bond was cemented even further when Rin died of inoperable cancer. As they stood over the grave of the only female that Sesshoumaru ever had any feelings for, both men declared brotherhood to the cold businessman, and Sesshoumaru accepted. They were both promoted to being co-CEO's, not because they changed their feeling towards humans but so each one had an equal share in the company's assets, like true brothers would.
End Flashback
"We need to arrange a meeting with Kagome and extend our offer." Sesshoumaru declared.
"Are you sure that you can stand being around a lowly human, Sephiroth?" Jareth asked.
"Are you? I live in the guest house. I have recently asked if I could have a kitchen installed so I don't need to come into the castle for anything but meetings with Sesshoumaru. However, you still live in the guest room and eat in the dining hall. You have no choice should you wish to avoid her." he pointed out. "Besides, it is not like we have a choice. She has nowhere else to go, and honor dictates that we keep the widow of a fallen brother safe and healthy."
"Well, maybe having a new influence will change something." Jareth said.
His brothers looked at him in shock (not that you could tell. Sesshoumaru's eyebrows twitched and Sephiroth's eyes widened slightly). They knew that they were all feeling the ennui of years without a true challenge, but they did not think that he was changed that much.
"Very well. I will call her tomorrow." Sesshoumaru said.