Disclaimer: Inuyasha does not belong to me.

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Saligia

The Beginning

…

He fell to earth as time and memory flickered and burst. Deafening, maddening voices surrounded his body, encased every fiber of his fallen being with unforgiving words of damnation, of banishment that would last until the end of days. They echoed and pounded in his head, blurred his golden vision and drained his inner source of power.

His fists clenched. His body arched. White hot agony pierced right through him, pulling and ripping his senses apart. Vengeance burned his breaking soul. Darkness crept into his splintering heart. And fury so great consumed his very core.

In one blinding flash that ruptured the world, sent incredible ripples through realms unseen, he broke free of the twisting, accusing voices and choking constraints. He landed hard in a flurry of feathers, black powerful wings spread wide and furious. Looking to the weeping skies—star-kissed eyes drowning in unspoken truths and storming convictions—he released a soul wrenching, heart pounding cry of absolute anguish. Of his sweeping fury that echoed across time and space.

"I am being damned wrongfully!"

Thunder and lightning were his only answers. The voices had been unable to keep their hold and as his unrivaled power pulsed across his skin, he closed his eyes and sent them a message wrapped in blood promises and sealed with vengeance.

"Make no mistake. For this transgression against me, I will one day pay you all back in kind…"

…

…five hundred years later…

She had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now as she coughed up blood and sucked in what air she could because breathing was so incredibly hard, she wondered if she was going to die out here all alone, just a few blocks from home.

In this frigid wind during the dead of winter, tears rolled down her temples. Wispy white rose from her bleeding parted lips. The stars had always looked so bright in the park but now…now they looked almost frightening.

She wasn't ready to go. There were so many things she still wanted to do, to experience, and taste. She was a good person. She loved hard and gave love unconditionally. She helped others as best she could. And she was a caring friend; an even better daughter and sister too.

Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. She choked on a bloody sob.

A shadow fell over her and though her vision was fuzzy and blurred by blood and tears, she could tell it was a man. Shrinking into herself, she shook her head, chest seizing with uncontrollable fear. What happened minutes before flashed through her mind. The knife impaling her chest. Over and over again. Screams. Agony. No time to escape or fight back. Her body convulsed and she was choking on her own impending death.

Warm fingers caressed the side of her bruised face, trailed down the cold curve of her neck and stopped just above her dying heart.

"They need you…" He drew closer, his fingers stroking her skin and it felt as if he was touching her escaping soul.

This silver haired stranger with a voice like fine velvet and eyes like the stars above them…was he here to save her?

"Do you wish to live?"

She struggled to move, to do something to convey that yes, yes she did. All she managed were more painful tears.

"I will need something in return."

Anything.

His eyes seemed to glow brighter. Bending forward, he whispered in her ear. "Your soul, your heart...everything."

Take it. She wanted to live so badly it hurt bone-deep. She'd give anything, belong to anyone if that's what it took.

"As you wish…" He crushed his lips hard against hers, his hand above her heart and it seemed as if he was reaching into the very center of her being. Her body arched up, her gasping scream swallowed by his plundering mouth. And like a raging sea, her twenty-three years of living crashed and thundered all around her.

Her birth. Her parents. Her first loves and first hates. Her father's funeral. The sorrow and pain. The first time she held Souta and the last. That time by the shimmering beach to another at the shrine. Her lowest lows and highest highs. Her kaleidoscope life danced in dizzying waves and flashes, flooded all she knew until she was submerged in the overwhelming intensity. And through it all, uncontrollable flickers of a life that wasn't hers weaved in and out like a fine silver thread. Stitching and mending until she could not help but close her eyes and cry at what could only be his memories.

She distantly wondered if he realized what he was sharing. How intimate and frightening this actually was. A sharp raspy exhale left her lips when her very essence was seared from the inside out. And then there was a gentle pull and push, a quiet calm that cascaded over her branded heart and soul.

"You belong to me now, Kagome…"

…

"We lost her."

Touga spun around, a fist clenched to contain his ire. "How?"

They shifted uncomfortably. To speak his name would be inviting unknown, possibly violent reactions.

"How?"

But to not speak his name would be inviting the certain wrath of their esteemed Arch General. "Sesshoumaru."

Touga went still at the mention of his fallen son's name. There was always deep anger, deep regret when he thought of Sesshoumaru's banishment from the skies. Even after five centuries, the fateful event still bled like a fresh, open wound.

His archangel of a son, accused of unholy crimes Touga could do nothing to refute. He'd been overruled by the Arc Noblesse and forced to watch his eldest condemned and then cast from the heavens. They had all been taken aback however—he, more so brimming with pride—when Sesshoumaru had broken the bonds of constraint. His power and immortality had failed to be stripped.

This was the first time he'd heard anything about his rogue son since his descent.

"Has the Arc Noblesse—"

The doors to his private sitting room burst open and really, Touga should've expected them.

"Your son has made a mockery of us all!"

"It was my son you all let hang and threw down to Earth. Do not come into my sanctuary and defile it with the Arc Noblesse's failures." It was always a test of his patience when dealing with these bastards who were blind to all but their own ideals.

Ryuukotsusei held back a snarl. "He has taken the next Seraphima Solare."

The full significance of what Sesshoumaru had done finally dawned on him. He hadn't been aware of the woman's status…who she would become once she walked through the gates. "Sesshoumaru's fallen. I no longer have any jurisdiction over him or his actions."

"Send down the Exousia."

Touga glanced at the tall, black-haired Arc Noblesse and then let his amber eyes slide to the other three. "You cannot be serious."

"We will not overlook this imbalance he has caused."

"Do not be rash, Ryuu."

"You would strip your only remaining son of his birthright?"

Touga's eyes morphed to a steely gold. "Tread carefully, gentlemen. It was because of your decision to banish Sesshoumaru that we find ourselves in this situation."

"It was the crimes he committed—"

Touga's fist came down and nearly cracked his heavy oak desk. "Those crimes were never proven! That the Arc Noblesse believed a tainted woman over a proven archangel…" Growing increasingly annoyed, Touga pinned them all with a hard, icy glare. "The Exousia are under my command and no other. Do not think for a moment I will send them on some fool's mission."

Ryuu's ferocity threatened to crack the thin veil of civility his patrician features strained to keep intact. "This is not over, Touga. By the end, Sesshoumaru will be burning in an eternal hell where not even demons will dare to walk." The Arc Noblesse stormed out, leaving Touga in the ensuing silence.

"Your orders, my lord?"

"Send for Inuyasha." His high guards bowed before leaving to summon his youngest son.

Born every five hundred years, the Seraphima Solare was coveted by the archangels. She was the bringer of life and light. The jewel in the heavens and hope for balance across the shifting cosmos. Her presence was needed, ached for. But now everything had been thrust into a discordant rhythm with his son, his very flesh and blood, at the forefront.

"What will you do, Sesshoumaru?"

Dark storm clouds rumbled in the distance, as if echoing Sesshoumaru's deep anger and the vengeance he'd vowed to take when he was thrown to the mortal realm. Touga only hoped his eldest knew the consequences he was about to reap.

…

…to be continued…

…

-demimonde