He was floating in the numbing darkness, his limbs spread loosely from his body.

I love you, my baby...I promise it will be alright...

A female voice echoed gently around him, a small flutter of lips brushed against his forehead. Warmth that he's never felt before, yet his body seemed to recognize it, over took him as unseen arms wrapped them selves around him.

I'll never leave you, I promise...

He stopped trying to open his eyes and simply took in the unknown comfort that this person brought him. He knew this person, yet in his mind no image was forthcoming. As if he was just now meeting someone he knew from long ago. This feeling...he wasn't supposed to be feeling this. His life never held such a person who would show him this affection. Something was changing that he had no control over, and for once he was willing to fall with no complaint.

"Hey-" A women's voice broke through the darkness, one that was different from the comforting one. The darkness started to recede and no matter how hard he tried to stay he was pushed to consciousness. Blurrily he opened his eyes and glanced down from his slumped position on the tree to the smiling reaper.

"Hiei I was sent to get you. Koenma said it was urgent."

Hiei's crimson eyes darkened as he heard the name of the one who trapped him to his job. He would not deny the fact that he felt some respect towards his comrades, but the tiny ruler would never be any more but an obstacle towards his freedom. He was a demon that should be free to do as he desires, not someone's lackey to do with as one pleases. His life was to do with as he wants, he lives for no one else.

With silent grace he slipped from the branch and stood next to Boton as she opened up the portal for the spirit realm.

He was the first in the silent room, besides Koenma, as was usual. The young ruler glanced up from his paperwork toward the glowering demon and quickly looked back at his desk. Hiei sent a small smirk his way as he went to lean against the far wall. His employer would never admit it, but Hiei knew that he was wary of him. It didn't used to be like this. Koenma used to be the comfortable one when they were alone waiting for the others. But he made a mistake when he tried to control Hiei further. While he still held some control over him with the probation, that control was slipping as he became more aware of just how powerful Hiei was becoming. Koenma's biggest mistake was to believe that he had full control over his team. Once he had crossed the line, and Hiei had no problem to show him just what type of demon he was. No one has the right to bring his family into anything for their own gain.

The door was pushed open roughly as the team leader walked in, the fox aviator and the fourth member trailing behind. From the disheveled look of Yusuke's clothing it was apparent that he was called in during his sleep, much how he was. Hiei was assaulted with the feeling of warm arms pressing him to a body, a hand running gently over his cheek. His body shuddered as he forcefully brought his attention back towards the group, choosing to look over the rest of the team rather then dwell on the emotion.

The red-haired fox seemed as calm as ever as he took a seat near the opposite wall, the last member taking a seat near him.

"What could you possibly want at this time of night?" Yusuke took glance at his watch and slammed his fists atop the desk. "It's four o'clock in the morning!"

Koenma changed into his teen form, a gesture that spoke of how serious this matter was. The spirit ruler brought a hand to his temple as he sighed.

Kurama sat up straighter. "What is it, Koenma?"

Their boss closed his eyes and slumped down into his chair. "Time...it's changing."

Yusuke gained a confused look. "Of course it is, time is constant. It's never the same moment."

Koenma shook his head violently. "No! I mean someone is playing with the flow of time, changing what has happened. Therefore changing what is to happen."

"A time traveler-" Kurama was cut off.

"Exactly! Somehow someone has found a way into the past and is changing history. It wouldn't be as urgent but she's changing something that greatly effects us."

" You mean the spirit world."

Koenma's eyes snapped open at Hiei's comment. "Yes." He answered after a few moments.

"How long have they been in the past." Kurama's question caused Koenma to break eye contact with Hiei.

"She's been traveling for about two years now. Back and forth between this world and the next."

Kuwabara rubbed his arm. "So why didn't you stop her sooner if she was causing a problem?"

Once again their boss rubbed his eyes. "She was supposed to travel back in time, that part was where history is still correct. But somehow she's...encountered something that she wasn't supposed to. She's changing something that should have been left alone."

Hiei narrowed his eyes. Koenma was hiding something, he could tell. There was something about this situation that he didn't want them to know about.

"What do you wish for us to do?" The smooth voice of the fox brought him out of his musing.

Koenma placed a hand over a white sphere that Boton set before him. "This is something that will take you to where she is located, no matter what time she's in. To use it all you have to do is touch it and ask it, whether mentally or out loud, to take you to her. Her name is Kagome Higurashi." Taking off his hand he stared at it's smoky surface. "Though before all of you can go, one will have to go first and come back with something of that time. Without that to connect it to the time, then it only has the power to transport one person."

Yusuke smirked and grabbed it before Koenma could protest. "Well then lets get this over with, Hiei maybe you should do it." He held the sphere out to him.

"No!" All eyes turned to look at him after his outcry. "I mean you don't even know the mission yet."

Hiei glared at him, knowing that his outcry was not over lack of information, but of him taking the first trip. What was it that Koenma didn't want him to figure out? His mind came to a conclusion as he stole the item from Yusuke's hand, he was going to find out.

As he finished his mental call to the sphere Koenma cried out and threw himself to take it from him.

To slow, Hiei thought with a smirk as the smoke from the sphere began to form around him.

"Hiei!" The shout was the last thing he heard from them as the smoke completely wrapped around him.

You silly boy what am I going to do with you...

Birds chirping, the sound filled his ears as he opened his eyes. Quickly he threw an arm over his face to cover them from the sun. Hiei sat up and lowered his arm to take in the clearing around his fallen body. His left hand was submerged in the cold water of the stream that flowed through the area, wildflowers bloomed throughout the remaining open land. Quieting he stood, checking for injuries on the ascent. The white of the sphere caught his eyes and he stooped to pick it up.

The human girl, if he was sent here then she was somewhere close by. Lifting his nose to the wind he caught sent of a band of travelers. Three humans, three demons, and one half-demon. One of the scents smelled like...Shaking his head he began to pick his way through the trees toward them. The scent could not be what he thought it was, it was not possible.

"Inuyasha watch your mouth! He and Shippo don't need to hear such things!" A females voice rang out from a different clearing. That voice, it was the same one from his dreams.

"Feh." Hiei made it to the edge of the clearing as he masked his scent and watched the half-demon jump into a nearby tree.

"Kagome, you should sit, you don't want to wake him do you?" A young woman helped the girl Kagome to sit against a fallen log. She smiled faintly at the women before she brought her gaze to the bundle in her arms. With one hand Kagome brushed aside some of the cloth and revealed the sleeping face of a baby. She placed a gentle kiss atop his head and gently rocked him.

Hiei stayed motionless staring at the scene.

The baby...This is why Koenma...

Hiei clenched his first and silently snarled. The girl had found an abandoned child and decided to care for it. To give it a brighter future. He understood now, why Koenma did not want this to continue. The child, if we get them to leave the child then it might not be to late for the bandits to find him...that was Koenma's plan.

The abandoned child was Hiei. The girl had saved him before the bandits who raised him found him. If he was allowed to stay with Kagome then he wouldn't be the person he was at present, and all those things he did would be undone. Kurama wouldn't be in debt to the spirit world. Koenma would be down two important members to his spirit detectives. That's why he wants this to stop. Hiei shook with rage, how dare he. How dare he!

But then he thought of something. If he let this happen then he wouldn't be the same anymore. The person that he was currently would be no more.

A small happy laugh broke through his musing and he looked over to the source. The infant, his younger self, was smiling and laughing at the young girl as she played with him. Kagome smiled warmly down at the bundle and kissed his cheek. Warmth flowed through his body where she kissed the infant.

"I love you, and I'll always protect you."

The person that I am now...is not worth losing this...

With a small smile he shattered the sphere between his hands. The tiny pieces turned to smoke as they fell and gently wrapped themselves around his body once more. Slowly he started to disappear.

This was his future...and he decides what path to take...

fin