Broken Wings

Disclaimer: Inuyasha does not and will not ever belong to me. Sad isn't it?

So here's a parallel story to Into the Ocean. I might write a sequel but I can't decide if I like the sad ending or not. Please Review!!!

She had missed him, for so long she had missed him. She felt like a bird whose wings had been broken. Her wings of hope. She had seen him every day, loved him without qualm. But now she was dying on the inside without him.

She had never thought that it would be so hard not to see him, not to touch him. It seemed so odd that she had survived the past five years. Five years of broken hopes and dreams. She was finally done with it all.

The cliff wind whipped her inky hair around her, forming a dark halo against the noonday sun. The mountain loomed behind her much as her past had, its shadow engulfing her. Wrapping her in darkness. Ahead of her the cliff dropped down into a coursing stream surrounded by a large, gleaming field of green.

Her mind wandered back to that day five years past when they had completed the Shikon no Tama. The moment she had placed her hand on the last shard a horrible wind had surrounded her, making her hair into a weapon, stinging every bit of exposed flesh. Then, suddenly, the wind was carrying her, ripping her away from all that she knew, all that she loved. And she had been none the wiser. By the time she had figured out what had happened it was too late to go back.

She was back in the present. The well had closed behind her, she could never go back.

She clutched the completed jewel in her hands, the chain cutting into her palms. She clutched the jewel to heart; at least she had it, her link to the past. It had come with her to the present, probably to protect itself from the demons of the past. Not that it had done her any good.

She remembered sitting in the bottom of the well for hours, days, weeks at a time. Day and night, the Shikon no Tama clutched tightly in her white fists, wishing to go back to the past, for there to be some way to be with him, any way at all.

She sat. She waited. And nothing happened. She tried to dig through the well, she pounded on the walls, crying - screaming for him to come and get her, to save her from herself. Then, finally she accepted her defeat and attempted to move on. Attempted to stop going to the well and trying just one more time to get to him. Attempted to stop imagining him climbing in her window to bring her back; for she'd been gone too long. None of it had helped.

Slowly, over time, she had learned how to live in her world again. In her time. She had graduated from high school with high marks, resumed lost friendships, and recovered from her various illnesses. But nothing had ever been the same as it was before she had seen him that day, pinned to the Goshinboku. The day she had fallen in love.

She'd gotten into a local college and was doing well, but she'd lived a half-life. She wasn't happy, how could she be?

And so her life had led her here, to this cliff. The Shikon no Tama clutched in her trembling fists, staring down into the rushing stream far below, the wind buffeting her body. A cruel reminder of how she had come to this place, to this moment in time.

And so,

She fell.

And yet she found her wings were not as broken as she had thought them to be. The wind lifted her from her descent, higher into the clouds.

What was going on?

She hadn't expected this; she was supposed to be dead. To go to the one place that she was sure to see him again. She was carried up into the clouds, the few breaks in the solid white allowing her glimpses of golden wheat, green fields; dense forests, lakes, mountains. She travelled for what seemed to be ages, flying with the birds. But suddenly the birds flying ahead of her just…disappeared. While she puzzled over the birds disappearance a familiar tingly sensation overcame her body. A warm, blue and purple light began to glow around her.

Could it be?

Had the Shikon no Tama finally realized her wish?

She floated through the light, down below the clouds and finally and over a coast to be left flying over the ocean.

Her heart soared with hope; so much hope. She was back in the Feudal Era! She had to be! What else could the light have been? Now all she had to do was escape the wind and find him.

She was being carried over the blue ocean slowly leaving Japan behind and approaching a small coastal island covered in what seemed to be weeping willows. Storm clouds that were moving faster than her overtook her and enveloped her in their invisible arms, hiding her from the world.

She floated in the clouds for what seemed like an eternity, attempting to find a way she might escape. The water droplets contained in the cloud began to weigh her down, drawing her down through the cloud. Her weight releasing her from the wind's clutches. The cloud began to release its water into the ocean, the soft raindrops passing her quickly on their way down.

The cloud broke in front of her and she saw the ocean, a ship

And him.

There he was, standing atop the ship's mast, perfectly balanced and just as beautiful as she remembered him to be. Five years had changed him, matured him, hardened him. His eyes seemed dead, his face more stern than she remembered.

While the years had changed him she was sure that he was still the hanyou that she had always loved.

But…why was he standing on the top of a ship?

She called his name…

She called again….

He fell…..

NO! What was he doing? Why was he falling into the ocean? He didn't know how to swim! Those long again lessons had been a disaster. She had to find a way to save him…

His hair flew up, tangling around his face as he fell, parting finally allowing him to see her there above him. And as he fell she saw the recognition in his eyes the moment that he realized she was there. Eyes before so filled with despair glimmered with hope. His hand reached slowly up toward her, begging her to be real, to save him.

She reached downward, stretching her body as far as she could in an attempt to grab his hand, but even though she seemed to be falling faster than he was she couldn't reach him. He was too far away. His pleaded with her, with his eyes, his body. But she could not reach him.

He crashed into the water, the waves caused by his fall coming up to take him down, hiding him from her view. She searched wildly for some sigh of him below the surface but nothing could be seen except the ripples that spread from where he had collided with the water.

She had failed.

He was gone.

Maybe he would remember those long ago swim lessons and find his way to the surface. But she was still falling; perhaps she could even save him when she reached the water. It wasn't too late, not yet.

No sooner had she formulated her new plan than her wings were broken yet again. A new gust of a strong wind came up taking the place of the failing wind that had carried her to him, taking her from her only chance to save him.

As she was carried away her mind flashed through memories of him. Feeling the wind through her hair, his hair flying around her as they jumped from treetop to treetop, the feeling of weightlessness as he carried her on his back, his strong hands holding her close… The moment she realized that she loved him under the Goshinbuko. When she had told him of her love to save him from Kaguya's mirror. When she had kissed him, and he had kissed her back…

So many memories, so many things undone, unsaid. Crystal tears coursed down her face, falling to mix with the ocean. How was it that it was all over? She had been brought back to her original purpose for falling from that fated cliff. Such irony…

She had finally gotten to see him again but what good had it done? She hadn't gotten a chance to be with him.

She felt the wind fail her, and her body began to fall again, the now familiar feeling of crashing towards his earth overtaking her once more. This time she was heading toward the island of weeping willows that she had spotted earlier. The rain had slowed and the mist had cleared and her fate lay plainly before her.

She would fall into those trees and her goal would be accomplished, that goal that she seemed to have set so long ago. She closed her eyes and wished that she would be with him when she awoke. She wished with all her heart to be with the one she loved…

The sun set, framing her limp figure hanging from a weeping willow tree, debris caused by her fall scattered beneath her mixing, disturbing the serenity of the islands peaceful landscape. The Shikon no Tama, which hung from her wrist, caught the last rays of light, turning to fiery diamond. With a delicate snap the chain holding the jewel broke and the jewel fell towards the ground, a shooting star slowly spinning through the air.

It shattered.

A million stars falling then, glowing gently with the fading sun as they floated toward the earth.