Complete Summary: Behind these rotting wooden walls and corroded and warped ceilings lay individuals who are tortured and tormented down to their very souls. Inescapable fates went unabashed, unhealable scars and wounds that ran so deep marred once beautifully creamy skin. Blemishes of the earth, nay- lower than the dirt they walked on and scorned for their association, they await an ultimatum, for an absolution that they all knew would one day come. It was all a matter of when.

NOTES:
This is a DARK fic. It will more than likely have controversial topics and extensive dark scenes. This is a challenging fic for me and written for personal reasons.
Please, if you are underage or too immature to handle dark themes and adult situations, please leave.

WARNING: Insinuated Sexual Relations

She reached over her shoulder, touching a wound that had long since healed over. A double streak of silver raced down from her left shoulder to the middle of her shoulder blade. The wound was cold and disappearing at a rapid speed. She let her hand fall from her shoulder and a small wan smile stretched across her lips as the lights went out for the evening down the corridor. There was a dull ache, a pang that somewhat burned from the mark before it faded in its entirety.

And she knew.

It wouldn't be much longer now.

—

"I have three days," he informed as they sat beside her campfire. They rested beneath a great weeping willow, intent on basking in each other's familial presence.

"They've hurt you," she remarked, seeing the burn marks nearly etched into his skin around his neck and wrists. His kimono was in disarray; tattered at the hems, blackened from time and misuse, and smelly. She was sure that beneath the layers of disgust were more hidden scars and painful reminders of his current misfortune. His nails were in various broken stages, and his hair seemed somewhat disheveled - an upsetting and unfit visage for the once-lord. "Will you… tell me?"

"They bred me," he said with no hesitation lacking the conviction that should have been there. As if it were a common occurrence in everyday life. "They have no honor and are breeding most youkai to tend to their wants and needs." He paused a moment and looked her right in the eye with a softer look, "I did not wish to be dismembered." Her eyes teared as the reality of his words hit her like a ton of bricks. He had children. And the children that he fathered… were being used. It was a parent's worst nightmare. It was an unfathomable thing. But… she had even seen these horrors with her own eyes, and she knew what he spoke was true.

And it was something she had wished would never happen to anyone she knew.

She gripped his sleeve as tears trailed down to her chin. Her eyes softened for him. The memories of him, of their lives together- it felt as if all were crashing down in a steady course of unwanted emotion. "They want to use me," Kagome said, "I fear with the next generation of rulers, I will be. The world is going to change drastically, Sesshomaru. There will be worldwide racism like you have never seen before, and it will be several hundred years before everyone will become equal, and even then it will be hard. And soon… there will be no reason to keep a Miko amidst the holy unholy war." She looked down at her hands. "I wish they would end my life. I have done things that contradict my very nature… I have burned and tortured the innocent. I have killed-murdered many. My hands are soiled with the blood of those who were powerless."

"We do what we must to survive," Sesshomaru commented, not giving her the chance to wallow. "We all live differently, and we all choose to fight for the right for survival. My race is slowly dying. Every day the holy ones purify another youkai for disobedience. Every day, my race comes closer to extinction."

"It will be a couple of hundred more years before things settle down and go back to…normal." She paused for a moment before she looked up at him with pure seriousness. "I have a request," she said, "I want you to take my virginity."

She didn't have any thought behind it. It was a stir of the moment decision. If…if she was going to give the flower away, she wanted to give it to someone who she had known in another life. "Take it away, Sesshomaru." She looked away from him then with a shake of her head. "They will, eventually, take it from me. Take it, please? Before they have the chance to defile what little I have left to hold on to."

He didn't need much more prompting if any at all. It was disconcerting at first, that there had been no hesitation. And she realized that he had done this far too often. The fact that he had bedded so many others, perhaps far too many to count… he was on autopilot. His demeanor was soft, however. Even as his lips brushed hers and his hand rested against her jawline, she knew it was different than if he were with any other. He wasn't being forced into it or pressured. He was fully aware that he could back away and leave her to the monsters who had subdued her. But… he didn't.

As they shed their clothing, more markings became visible. More tortured memories. More scars, bruises, and scrapes. Past wounds just beginning to heal and some are nearly gone with time, but others taking their place. She kissed every single one. She knew it would do no good, but she hoped she could portray her feelings through the action. His pained expression, however, told her all she needed to know. And even though this was the start of a long-awaited healing process, it would never be complete for this was all the time the two of them had together.

He bit her neck. And he tore the skin. It left a mark that scraped from her shoulder to her back. He hadn't given her a warning, but she could feel his poison. She didn't say a word, however, even as he began licking her wound closed. Her mind was clouded over with memories of the two of them together. Her body reacted like fire, and soon enough, the throes of passion were enough to blanket her entire being.

Shuttering from their third climax of the evening, they lay together. Her crying, knowing that she would need to bid him farewell soon, lest they both be punished - she knew she would have to do it. "They aren't going to be happy about my abilities being taken." Kagome gave him a bittersweet smile. "They're going to think I got mauled," she remarked, referring to the wound on her shoulder. The two of them said nothing further as they basked in the other's company.

For a time, they were quiet. Kagome didn't mind, however.

"You were their world," Sesshomaru commented, bringing up a past not quite forgotten. "Rin adored you, and the kit protected you fiercely."

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked.

"There was a day he had followed me," Sesshomaru said as his eyes closed in recollection of a far-off memory, "he asked me many questions. He did not want you close to me and made me swear not to ever lay a hand on you."

Kagome laughed then, "I never knew that." It was the first wholesome laugh she'd had in a long time. Her voice and bottom lip quivered a moment. Even though she'd had enough time to move on from their deaths, she never had a proper mourning period. Tears collected in her eyes once more. She never did get the chance to say goodbye.

"Rin's death had led to my capture," he remarked. "Had I not been…emotional… I could have rescued you and prevented the entire event."

"No one could have predicted this outcome," Kagome said with a shake of her head, "I still believe that having emotions doesn't make you weak. It can be the very fuel you need to survive. It's what has kept me going all these years. Though I'm not going to lie- seeing you here and now… I had honestly thought you had died."

"You doubt my abilities," he said with a raised brow.

"No," Kagome said, "but they knew just how to take us all down," and as she talked, her brows knitted together, "they'd been watching."

"Yes, they have," Sesshomaru responded with a nod of his head in affirmation, "though it is now in the distant past."

Kagome nodded but said nothing further on the subject. She was conflicted with emotion and thoughts of what-haves and what would have been. She looked up at the sky, watching the sun begin to fall beyond the tree line and casting dancing shadows across the entire camp. "Tell me of your life," Sesshomaru said.

With a smirk, she looked at him, and she told him of her first arrival and of her total miscalculation of time. She told him of her disobedience and her punishments. Of her newfound freedom and of the acquaintance she had lost. The places she had been. The things she'd witnessed. Even of gossip that she would occasionally filter through the doors outside her sleeping quarters at night. She tried to tell him of everything and anything that she could think of- and though most of it had been negative and depressing, it was better than his current treatment at wherever he resided currently. And kept talking until sleep claimed her.

There were no plans of escape. There were no discussions of infiltrating the concentration camps and saving everyone. There were no misguided hopes of a possible rescue.

But this was fine. This smidgen of companionship… was what was needed at this moment.

And when she woke in the morning, her friend was gone, and the little yellow tassel that she had given to him rested next to her makeshift pillow of leaves, dangling amongst a small twig that jutted from the ground.

She wanted to cry, but she couldn't. She'd long since run out of tears. The only thing she could do now was to go back. But considering the somewhat soreness between her legs and muscles she never even knew existed and the feeling of being grimy from burning and killing an entire village, the need to cleanse was strong.

When she did make it back, she knew everything would change.

See you guys in the next chapter!