a/n: hi all! if anyone's wondering why I haven't posted in a long, long time, just remember that I'm a workaholic. I think about this story every single day though. I finished what I could as I've been sitting on this chapter for months now. I had originally planned on it being longer but for anyone who stuck around and followed for updates, I felt yall deserved whatever I could offer in the moment. Thank you everyone for reading, following, and reviewing!

Love, sploosh

A faceless puppet.

Sesshou could feel his blood boil beneath his skin. A puppet. Again. And what for, if not to distract him from other more important matters?

A quick slash of his poison whip had disintegrated the thing in half. Laying as a bubbling heap on the docks, the puppet proved to be nothing more than a means to create distance between himself and his true target. Sesshou scoffed.

Turning quickly on his bare toes, he sped off into the night. This goose chase had taken him far, but not far enough. He would find Kaito, and he would kill him. Politics no longer mattered to Sesshou. This puppet was an act of war, and he had little tolerance for being toyed with.

The icy wind felt like pins and needles against his face, but he welcomed the pinpricks of pain. Kagome was in danger. He needed reminding that he could still feel, despite the fear that nearly numbed his entire being. He would make it in time, this he was sure of.

Kagome held the barrier over herself, laying curled up in the fetal position. The snow began to melt under her warm body, but just as she sapped it of the cold; it stripped away her body heat too. Breathing shallowly, she tried to quiet her respirations. Panicking wasn't a luxury she had at the moment.

Kaito sat back in the snow, his bum leg bent awkwardly with his good leg upright, knee perched, and his palms balancing his weight behind him. His overall disposition was casual; patient even, in spite of their violent confrontation that left him partially crippled for a time.

That was fine with him. He could wait. Time wasn't a concern of his, but he knew for the mortal tucked beneath a purified barrier of sparkling lavender, the clock was ticking for her. An easy grin flitted across his sharp features at the thought.

"Priestess," Kaito raised his voice to carry across the courtyard, "Tell me, did you have a name picked out for the infant?"

"Shut up!" Kagome bit out through ground teeth, struggling to raise herself up with wounded wrists. How dare he mock her.

"Were you hoping for a son, to please Lord Sesshomaru?" Kaito's barking laughter startled her as it echoed in the night.

"None of your business!" She bit out, rising to her knees to glare at the sick bastard.

"Did you know he never wanted children?" This time the cynicism was diluted, sharing what felt like a more honest exchange. "First, to spite his mother." Kagome didn't need to be told that, she already knew that tidbit of information. "Then, to contain his reign." This gave her pause, and she sat back on her haunches. "Don't be surprised, Priestess. Our Lord himself vowed to dispose of his own sire. Can't you imagine his son desiring to surpass him in just the same fashion?"

"He's changed, and you don't even realize it." She stayed defensive, recalling how he kissed her forehead goodbye before sending her into hiding. Sesshou told her himself, he would not have regretted their coupling had it ended in being mated.

But then again, that didn't mean he wasn't relieved that they weren't. Even if they had mated, it didn't mean he wanted a child. Doubt coursed through her heart, bringing tears to her eyes.

"Think of all those lovely females who reside inside his court. Wonder why he never bedded any?" Kaito searched for her crumbling hope, seeing tears blurry her blue eyes. "Couldn't risk sharing his crown with a mere woman. Or even a child," He hissed out, "Too much risk."

"It wouldn't be like that!" Kagome furiously scrubbed her face with numb fists.

"How do you know?"

Heat burned at her skin where damp clothing had stuck to her sides. Her form glowed, an ethereal hue radiating from her exposed flesh. Where there was pain, came a tingling sensation, like ants swarming the damaged tissue.

Kaito had never crossed the time traveling priestess when she first traipsed through feudal Japan, but he was realizing very quickly just how late he was in nipping her in the bud.

Kagome was healing. Rage drove her reiki to shine from under her flesh, mending the puncture wounds at her shoulders and knitting together the slashed skin of her wrists. The memory of Sesshomaru's canine maw stretching in transformation came to her mind.

"You know nothing about Sesshomaru!" She screamed, grabbing her bow from the snow and aiming it at Kaito's head.

"Wait!" Kaito lunged away mere seconds before the arrow would have pierced his eye. He winced at his unnaturally bent foot, knowing that erratic movement just cost him an hour of healing at best. When he turned to face the enraged priestess, he took a moment to assess the outcome.

She was notching another arrow, forcing her breath to slow despite her fury. He knew now that he was the vulnerable one.

The bow thwipped as the arrow sprung, inciting Kaito to dive away once more. Stumbling to his feet as the arrow narrowly missed his torso, he could hear the girl shuffling forward in the snow. Pain shot up his leg every time he stepped forward but he had to ignore the sharp ache. He needed to create distance.

"Get back here!" Kagome ran after her assailant, finding he was much slower with his injured achilles. She couldn't afford to let him escape. She would deliver his corpse to Sesshou. "Coward!"

She chased him towards the private house of the Higurashi family, passing the tree of ages and into the lineup of storage sheds her grandfather was keen on keeping organized and dated to perfection. The well house, too, sat in sight, but Kagome paid no mind to it.

Reaching for the back of Kaito's clothing, she lunged and forced them both down into a tackle. Kagome scrambled to take the upper hand, straddling the demon and pulling a throwing knife from her sleeve. She raised it with both hands, prepared to strike down into the demon's chest, and hesitated.

He was staring beyond them, leaving himself open to be slain. Kagome followed his stare to the well house.

"The well…" Kaito thought out loud, eyes curious as he considered his options.

"No," Kagome scrambled off, needing to get out of his arm's reach to process her shock should he try to gain the upper hand. "It isn't possible."

She had spent these past few years trying desperately to return to the past, despite the futility of her repeated efforts. How could it have possibly awoken now? What changed?

"I'm afraid you've become too fierce to single handedly destroy, Priestess." Kaito raised himself into a crouch, bearing his weight on his uninjured leg. "Perhaps I should've done so when you were merely the bastard mutt's whore."

He was going for the well, she realized.

Before Kagome could even consider the possibilities, she dropped the knife and broke into a sprint. Racing a handicapped demon with a head start advantage surely wasn't granting her favorable odds, but she had to try.

Kaito rounded the doorway of the well house and was down the steps when she cleared the doorway behind him.

Sesshomaru was close now, his ire in the very air around them, but he wasn't close enough. Kaito braced himself, changing his tactic in an instant. Kagome's heavy footfalls never bound down the steps with urgency, alerting him to her jump.

She had dove into him from the top step, and narrowly missed his torso. Kaito had ducked, and Kagome's airborne momentum was impossible to stop. In an effort to guard her stomach, she rolled into the forward motion, clearing the opening of the well.

Her shoulder caught on the brick wall and would have bounced hard, with gravity forcing her to crash into the depths of the well, but the magic took to her as it always had; embracing her trusting fall and carrying her gently into another time.

When the well lit up in an ethereal blue, Kagome knew it was too late. Her wide eyes stared into the ceiling of the well house, watching a single figure peer down at her until the ceiling was blinded and faded into the pale skylight of an early dawn. The grey morning light blurred in her vision with tears, as she sat back helplessly on her knees.

She was back.