Sound screamed back into the world and stunned Ren. She gripped her ears to silence the ringing to little avail. Laughter, fire crackling and Sesshomaru's heavy breathing were the first things she could discern from the onslaught to her hearing. Rin pulled away and looked down at her with shock.

"Sesshomaru-sama! It's Ren." Sesshomaru turned immediately and grit his teeth.

"Impossible… Get her away from this place. Now." Rin cringed slightly as she turned and Ren noticed a bruise along her arm and shoulder.

"Who did this to you? Are you alright?" Rin never got a chance to answer.

"How nice of you to come back. We missed you at the end of the world, sister." Tsukiyomi floated in the sky that was a roil of grey and black clouds. "I could not believe my lesser half when he said he had killed you off."

"What do you want from me? Tell me truthfully." Ren pushed Rin away and glared at her to run as fast and as far as she could. Rin listened without being told twice to Sesshomaru's great displeasure. Tsukiyomi's face calmed despite his imposing aura.

"I want… it to all go back. I want you by my side. I want this place… to cease to exist. I want you all dead." The final sentence was like the sound of a race being started. Instantly Sesshomaru leapt into the sky and swung the Bakusaiga at Tsukiyomi's head.

"I will not allow this." Amaterasu appeared in front of Tsukiyomi, protecting him. Sesshomaru's blade was side slung and for a moment everyone seemed to be safe… until Tsukiyomi drew back his hand and tore through Amaterasu's rib cage. Liquid light flowed outward and Ren realized that time was simply rewriting itself. Susanoo caught her as she fell.

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At this rate everyone would still die.

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"I'll come with you then. But these people must live. Susanoo had to prove his sincerity once. Prove yours to me by letting these people live."

"She will do no such thing!" Sesshomaru materialized behind her with his arm wrapped around her waist. Tsukiyomi bared his teeth at the very sight and raised a hand dripping with the blood of his own sister. Inches above his fingertips formed a single dot of swirling blackness. The wind was no match for the draw the darkness had and was drained inward. Behind Ren was InuYasha and Kagome, he was handing her his cloak and drawing his own weapon. Time was moving forward too quickly.

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Tsukiyomi opened his hand, palm upward to the sky and Amaterasu shoved against Susanoo. Her hand moved so quickly that Sesshomaru didn't have time to act let alone Ren. A silver, three inch needle shot out from Amaterasu's hand and into Sesshomaru's chest. Instantly he pulled the small thing out and a tiny stream of blood began to pour out of him.

"If you take my love… I will take yours…" Ren turned back to Sesshomaru and they realized together that the blood would not stop. The tiny blade had shot through his skin, between his ribs and into his heart.

"I didn't want to! He leaves me no choice!" Sesshomaru flexed his fingers and Tsukiyomi burst into fits of laughter.

"Look! I didn't have to do a thing. This woman had a use after all." Maniacal cheering ensued. "Watch as slowly his life slips from between those weak fingers of his." Just the sound of his voice pained Ren as red stained Sesshomaru white clothes.

"Sesshomaru… no, no, no, no…" Sesshomaru dropped to a knee and Ren knelt with her hands on his chest trying to will the bleeding to stop.

Tsukiyomi struck. The sphere of black nothing came down and stopped a mere ten feet from both Ren and Sesshomaru. A shield rose up around them made of what could only be described as the prismatic color of a soap bubble. Beams of black shots outwards and drove deep wounds into the ground, in the distance and mansion broke away from its foundation and disappeared into the growing center of Tsukiyomi's attack.

"Issen no arashi tenma!* (Storm of a thousand demons) InuYasha swung the Kusanagi horizontally across his chest and then swung the Tetsaiga vertically. The union of the two was devastating and aimed true at its target. Tsukiyomi shielded the attack with a black shield much like Ren's and was forced back nearly 40 feet.

The last thing anyone heard was an ear piece screech as Sesshomaru began to fade in and out of conscious. Ren's life was eroding around her.

"Ren-sama!" Kagome rushed to Ren's side and InuYasha followed just behind her.

"Sesshomaru. Don't you dare let this guy defeat you." Sesshomaru ignored his brother and sister-in-law.

"Ren..." She wouldn't hear it. Izanagi had said it from the beginning. Time had a way of playing out the same no matter what you did. What is fate if it can be twisted around at whim after all?

"You came from no-where. You threatened my life… You threaten his life. Your chased us and tormented us with fear of death. And for what?! The thrill of the game?!" Ren stood up and screamed her outrage. It rumbled out of her chest like distant thunder until suddenly Tsukiyomi lowered his shield and the black orb died out.

"Amaterasu…" His head lowered and he looked at blood stained hands. "Susanoo…" His eyes traveled from his brother to his actual sister and recognition crossed his face for the first time. "I have not been dreaming? I am alive again?" Amaterasu whispered something no person could hear and Susanoo wept for the first time.

"Ren?" Ren walked forward towards the God of the night and of the moon. It took her almost five minutes to reach him and when she did his head reeled sideways as her hand made impact with his cheek. It was the only thing she could do because she knew she could not look back. She knew what waited for her if she looked back. Time had change, but she was still on the losing side.

"I have… done these things?" Tsukiyomi was bewildered.

"Give him back… Give him back to me!" Ren latched on and shook him. He was startled and stepped away from her in awe of being manhandled.

"I cannot." His eyes met her and she punched him. Once, twice and a third time. Susanoo ran over to stop her or she would have continued. Tsukiyomi never once moved to stop her.

"Give him back, Give him BACK!" Ren was losing touch with reality.

"Kusabana Ren." Ren went limp in Susanoo's arms and he lowered her to the ground. "I forewarned you. Did I not? That time cannot be undone. You have seen the future yourself. There are things that must be. I offer a choice to you…" Izanagi passed Tsukiyomi and Susanoo, Amaterasu, the god birth from one of his eyes resting in his arms. "I have sealed shut the gaps of time to those who do not belong. You are of both times and I ask you, which life do you wish to live? The one where the demon Sesshomaru is nothing but a memory or where you have a home with a father, a mother and a sibling because in this world you do not have any of those. After you choose, I will remove all the errant remains of the gods that have died. Nothing will remain of us on this world. I will strip all that is of us and demons will be no more. Only the memory of us will remain and the bridge will no longer be needed. I myself will stand guard in this world as sentinel. No god or human besides me will mingle ever again and thus end this cycle of death." Ren stared into her hands and with her head bent low, she walked towards Kagome and InuYasha.

"Ren… don't do this… You don't have to…" She shoved him out of the way.

"Let me see him." She bent down and without looking at his face, Ren leaned over Sesshomaru's body and screamed. She screamed and screamed until it hurt to continue, but even then she screamed. "I can't! I can't!... I can't leave him…. Oh god it hurts…" She rocked back and forth while holding on to him. She was thankful that he was still warm. She didn't know what she would do it he'd already grown cold.

"Your decision has been made. Time will flow as it should with you on this side of it." Ren felt an odd tingle over her body as the last remains of Amaterasu were drained from her. She was surprised that she could actually fell the difference of not having any part of Amaterasu in her. She had somehow assumed she hadn't changed despite it all.

"Ren… I am sorry for all that we as Gods have done to you. I would like you to keep these… as ways to remember the time you had with us and Sesshomaru."

"I don't want to remember you… I just want him back." Amaterasu left Ren in her grief. On the ground rested the Yasakani no Magatama jewel and Yasa no Kagami mirror.

"There is nothing I can say or offer to make amends for what we have done… I can only hope that the future offers you some kind of joy." Susanoo took Amaterasu and helped her across the bridge. It would soon be destroyed to keep the gods and mankind apart.

"Kusabana Ren. Born from Amaterasu. Born from Izanagi. My sister and my beloved… unlike my sister and brother, there is something I can do to aid you in your time of pain. I cannot bring back your Sesshomaru, being that all demons will soon be gone… I can give you hope. The full moon will rise and wane eight times and you will feel love again ten times greater than anything you would have known. Do not despair…" Ren's mind surged as she remember that she was carrying a child. She had somehow forgotten and then she began to panic.

"If the gods will no longer be allowed on this side of the bridge, what about Amaterasu's child? What about the future?" Tsukiyomi smiled and Ren got the bigger scope of what was happening. She was going to be the mother to histories Ninigi no Mikoto who is the grand child of Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun. His son would become the first emperor of Japan.

"The future is safe and will continue unchanged through you…" Ren touched her stomach and reached for the mirror which had been fixed and the jewel. Both items along with InuYasha's Kusanagi would be given to her child in the future and he would gift them to his child making him the emperor who would unite Japan.

"We must leave now…" Ren watched until only Izanagi remained. The moment his children cross the bridge he pointed the naginata at it and it shattered into pieces. The remains left by Tsukiyomi of the manor were also destroyed beyond recall.

"It feels so strange…" Ren looked up to see the grandmother of her child and gasped. The once pure white hair that had hung in length down her back was now black; her eyes shone a startling blue. Those eyes were haunted and clouded with tears. "He is dead… I had prayed…" She kneeled beside Ren, uncaring for the satin garments she now ruined and touched her sons face. "I can now leave this place, but I have little reason to besides you and child you now carry… does being human always hurt like this?" Ren had no answer and as she reached for Sesshomaru, the silvery color drained from his hair and became as black as his mothers. "The demon in him is gone." Ren idly straightened Sesshomaru's clothes for no apparent reason. "… Come Ren… let us leave this place."

"Wait." The God Izanagi came forward and stopped before Izanami and Ren. She looked at him as if seeing for what he was for the first time. "Do you know me?" She shook her head and he looked confused about it.

"I do not recognize you. Should I? Are you not a god?" Ren nearly toppled over. She had not gotten to tell her about her relationship with Izanagi. Despite that she stepped into him and touched his face. Something he allowed her to do. "You have a face that reminds me of my sons…" As if triggered by a word Izanagi touched Sesshomaru mothers face and she toppled backwards.

"I have removed her knowledge of this place. Being that she is only human it is strenuous for her. Those two will need a lot of care… I will be watching." Izanagi disappeared and Kagome walked over and covered her up with InuYasha's coat. He did not care too much because he had walked over to his brother's body and stood over top it.

"I told you not to let that guy kill you." InuYasha grit his teeth.

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"Do not think to make demands of me, InuYasha."