There was nothing but rock before him. Cold and rough rock, small veins of iron ore and other metals bled throughout it, but it was still just as it was meant to be. Rock and not a gateway.

"I cannot bring her back… I can do nothing but stand here while the gate remains closed… Ren on the other side…" His hand touched the rock surface and he felt no stir of power. Nothing.

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His fist slammed into the rock and part of the cave shuttered.

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"Why could I not bring you back with me?"

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Izanagi was forced to pick his daughter from the ground and sit her down at a park bench. He listened while she finally vented everything she had been wondering at.

He said he loved me… I've missed a month of my life… Those guys. I should have let Sesshomaru kill them!... I'm sure he would have… I wonder if Saneki is alright… those clothes in my room… are the same as Sesshomaru's… What happened to me….What is still happening to me….Why are you here?

She finally got to the place Izanagi wanted his daughter at. Curious.

"How… how did you know I'd be here? How could you know?" Her father opened his hand and revealed a small glowing light. It rolled slightly in his hands as he pushed it towards Ren.

"I guessed… Sometimes fate is not as random as you might think…" The ball rolled into her hands. It was warm and holding it felt like… like coming home after a vacation. It was nice while the break was available, but now it was back.

"Did you see the man?" He nodded and hugged her.

"So, what are you going to do?" Ren looked at him like he'd asked something difficult of her.

"What?"

"What are you going to do about Sesshomaru? Would you chase him if you could or do you want to get on with life as if nothing happened? You have the right. No one will think less of you…. By the way. I never got to tell you, but your mother is pregnant. Twin boys by the looks…" A knowing smile crossed his face.

"Iz-zanagi…" The ball sank into her hand and light flared. "You're…" As she had but days ago, Ren was forced into light and vanished from sight. Izanagi could only smile as he got up and started the car and got in. Dinner would be on soon and he would not miss it for the world.

"Now how do I explain this to Izumi and Saneki…" He shrugged his shoulders and drove down the road like nothing different had happened in his day so far. Then again, this was normal for him and he had been around for a time. Not that is was long to him.

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"My time is done now, Sesshomaru…" He turned to the very last remains of Rem. "My duty here is complete…" The light grew and before he could blink; a hand forced itself out form solid rock.

"Sesshomaru?" That was not Rem's voice. His hand reached out and took the hand in the mountain side and gently pulled. "You there?"

She is still crying… this girl

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know! I never knew! I missed you and I tried so hard!" She was halfway out of the wall now. "I wasn't lonely when you were with me! I-I cried so much when you disappeared and left me standing there alone!" Sesshomaru had no idea as to what happened. He didn't really care. She was 10 seconds from being in his world for good. Her memory had found its way back to her and him with it. "Say something to me!" Her foot popped out of the rock and he pulled her into him. The embrace was almost crushing and she didn't care in the slightest.

"I love you." His mouth was on hers and she kissed him back with no reservations.

I… I didn't expect that…. I… stop thinking about it!

Her hands wrapped around his neck and he was forced to bend slightly due to her shorter statue. Her fingers gripped his collar and his pushed her closer into him, as if they parted she might vanish and for good.

Oh!

"My dad, my real dad is Izanagi! THE Izanagi! As in Izanagi and Izanami! Amaterasu's dad!" She pulled away from him and looked at his face. "S-Sesshomaru…" He disregarded what she failed to say in words. Then he had colored just like she was. That his face, though not red like hers, was pink and flushed and hot. "You came back for me…" Her hands loosened and she held his face.

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The look on her face at that moment tore normal thought from him in much the same as the boy with the picture.

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Completely.

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His hands moved to her shoulders and held her in place, His lips crushing into hers in the shadow of a mountain in the darkness of a cave. The sound that he had told her to once never make came out and it was all the more drive to continue. Her hands had sunk to his neck and coiled with part of his hair. She was holding as if for dear life and he was fine with that.

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He no longer cared what was human or demon.

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That she was not a noble.

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That she was born hundreds of years in the future, but was hundreds of years his junior

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And that before her, he was both invincible and the weakest creature on the planet.

…

Or even the fact that he had become his father.

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"Ren…" Slowly her hands slide down his chest and she stared at the small part of him that she had 'undressed'. It wasn't much, but it was enough for her. "Look at me." Her thumb moved from his shirt to his skin. It was like a brand and her fingers curled into to her palm as she peered up.

She is singly the most beautiful thing in this world. I had almost lost her to each brother and again to the gateway that was time….

"I'm terrified and I don't want to stop this… whatever it is."

Perhaps it doesn't matter what she says at this point. Her speech alone draws me further… I have to stop her before this becomes something… else.

Despite his self-proclamation he gently pushed her back against the side of the cave. She was so small compared to him; he surrounded her while she stood before him, her face still at his chest.

He could hear her thoughts on this matter and for once in the entire time he had known her, their minds were in the exact same frame of mind.

I don't want to stop… but a part of me is afraid of this person before me.

It was enough that she stood on shaking knees, that his heart was hammering away against his best effort to quiet it. A single sounded brought the moment to an end.

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From outside, laughter rained down and into the cave. It chilled Ren even though her clothes still remembered the heat from the sun a hundred years in the making.

"You came back to me!" From inside, hidden and frighten to no end, Ren answered her brother with a hatred that could have made a physical form had she the ability to back it up.

"I did not come back for you!" She edged behind Sesshomaru and glanced up. The laughter from before had faded from his lips and a frown and furrowed brows marred the youthful face that was Tsukiyomi. She could almost see the work insanity was doing to his body. His skin was almost grey and his eyes had paled if possible. His clothes were tattered and ripped, but he remained oblivious to any injury he had and there were signs of battle all over him.

"You wound me, Nee-sama." The way he said 'sister' was an insult. He bent at the waist and stared down at her as if Sesshomaru wasn't present. His eyes bore into hers and she allowed him to see her fear and her rage. He had tried to steal her, warp her, bind her and she was not having it.

"What have you done with Susanoo?" She grit her teeth and held the back of Sesshomaru shirt to give her some kind of strength.

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Ren. Sesshomaru. He still claims the Kusanagi. Do not be fooled… You should not have come back Nee-san, but I am happy to see you again.

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"Who knows what happened to him… Surely I wouldn't. He fled the moment we sensed your return to us… It was cruel to not tell us when you were coming back… I punished Susanoo for it." His grin made his face look crueler if all possible.

Tsukiyomi pulled the Kusanagi from his side and pointed it at Ren and Sesshomaru. It almost hung loose from his fingers; lazy almost.

"I plan to do the same after I take back everything he stole from me." He finally glanced at Sesshomaru and she couldn't imagine a darker glance than the one she received from him. She had been wrong. So very wrong and as the moment passed from one second to the next Tsukiyomi's eyes shifted from pale to completely black; pupil, iris and all.

"Tsukiyomi!" Sesshomaru took Ren's hand and listened to the voice of Susanoo that had managed to enter his head.

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Take her and run. If you don't, she will get hurt in the cross fire for sure. I will deal with my brother alone.

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"We have to leave…" Sesshomaru took hold of her and flew over hills, mountains and lakes to the place where he had brought her when he had poisoned her. Ren covered her ears so she only had to hear the muffled sounds of thunder and Tsukiyomi's hate filled ranting as she got away. "I had almost forgotten… what do we do about Tsukiyomi and Susanoo? I mean…" Sesshomaru placed her down when they landed. "One wants to kill me, the other want sent me back to my world… but the gate is closed now right?..." Sesshomaru had no answer. He wasn't even sure if this classified as a safe place, but against a God, did such a place exist on earth? "The mirror… that has to be it… The sword is a weapon of peace, the gem was Amaterasu's spirit… The mirror!... The mirror…" Her voice faded. "Was in the estate… it's gone." Ren sat down and huddled into herself. "Ok… something has to take on a God…. I don't want you to fight him." She was on her feet and grabbing his shirt that had yet to be fixed since last she man-handled him. "Promise me! You will stay away from him!" This he could not promise her. What she was afraid of was true enough. That he would act to protect her, but Tsukiyomi was also after him. This was simply something beyond him.

"That is something I will not promise." She backed away and glared.

"You mean you fought to save me, protect me, went through time to bring me back to you! And you won't do this?! You are going to go and get yourself killed and leave me here? ALONE!?"

He was on her faster than she could think. Tsukiyomi, Susanoo and everything else on the planet was a figment of a colorless, lifeless world. She tried and failed to stop the tears that always seemed to come to her. They fell down her face and onto him.

I don't want to lose you… I can't… Not know….. Don't make me live without you…

"Don't you dare..." She managed only that as his hand flicked her face upwards and his kiss landed on the hollow of her throat. She made that sound… the sound that had to be goddess sent and so, no thread of reason remained.

It was only in both of their interest to silence the others fear where words had failed them.