Sesshomaru fell to his knees once again with a howl, his hand bloodied as golden eyes dripping with tears watched her fall to the ground for the umpteenth time. Why!? Why did this keep happening!? Every time he stood she would be there with his palm cupped light around the scar upon her throat but when he blinked, she would be choking and gasping upon the red fluid and she would fall away from his hand that was then buried into her soft and torn neck.

This was torture!

"Eavan please!" He wailed as he desperately tried to wipe the blood from his fingers upon his hakama, the white silk already stained. "Enough . . . Just enough." A hiccup fell from his lips pathetically and he raised his solemn eyes to stare at the empty pasture before him, the mist swirling and coating the land with a miserable gloom.

You are weak! . . . A Failure!

The voice of his love hissed upon the air and sent sparks through his skin as his heart thumped wildly with remorse. Why was she doing this? The proud dog demon hung his head and clamped his eyes shut as the hissed whispers passed over him like the coldest winter snow; making him shiver and low whine to escape his throat when another memory was forced behind his eyes.

"Eavan? Eavan no, please don't do this." He cried through clenched teeth and gently shook her in hopes that she would wake up and stare at him with those loving green eyes that captured his heart and soul. "Please don't leave me here. Come back." His heaving chest was becoming painful as he crushed her body to his, wanting to pour as much of his life into her but alas, the deed was done. She was gone. Placing his hand at the base of her head, he slowly lifted it to where he could gaze into her clouded eyes for the last time before he used his other hand to close them forever.

With a rumbling roar Sesshomaru threw his head back and howled as his darkest moment once again assaulted his mind and blinding him with sorrow from centuries ago. Tears spilled down his cheeks as he leaned over and slammed his head upon the ground with a whimper, wanting to erase the images forever from his being and forget the pain that he was tired of holding on to. He wanted to be free from his past, from his failure but he could never release it, it was a part of him forever and it was burned within him.

"Forgive me." He whispered as he ground his forehead into the grass and flushed his fingers against his tightly sealed eyes. "Forgive me Eavan." He wanted to be at peace. What happened centuries ago could never be undone and no matter how much he wished to change it; he knew he could not.

He just wanted peace.

There he lay upon the cold grass, hunched over with sorrow as the hated and hissed whispers passed over him like chilled wind that prickled his skin with ice. Before he could accept the fate of reliving Eavan's death, warmth spread through him and the whispers ceased their hissing and soon all fell into a comfortable silence. In all his centuries of living on the earth, the great lord of the west felt an imaginable fear of beholding something before him. He could sense a presence, feel an aura that was right in front of him and he was afraid to open his eyes.

So he stayed frozen and refused to look up from the safety of the ground, hoping that whatever the presence was would disappear and leave him to his sorrow.

He did not receive that wish.

"Sesshomaru." The presence spoke softly and the demon lord pushed himself to a sitting position and saw nothing before him that his eyes could see. He felt the presence, yes but there was nothing before him; just the swirling of the fog upon the cold grass of the pasture.

Golden eyes scanned around him and still he could not see anyone but he could feel the chill around him begin to grow warm and the fog was slowly starting to dissipate. How odd he thought and upon shaky knees he stood and felt just how drained he was, as if the strength in his body was sucked right from him.

"Sesshomaru." The presence spoke again making the dog demon spin around as the voice draped loosely upon the wind. "What you're seeing is not real."

N. . . not real? How can that be? Sesshomaru spun around once more trying to pin point where the voice was coming from but could find nothing, only an empty field which grew warmer by the second.

"H. . . How?" He croaked and stood rigid when he felt a weight hit his right hand.

"Please come back to me."

Golden eyes ghosted toward his palm and their wrapped tightly in his fingers was the hilt of Tenseiga, the blade pulsing wildly and glittering with such power that it sent the lost strength of the demon flowing back into his body like a wave. With the blade held tightly in his palm and the power surging through him, Sesshomaru let loose a loud bellow and sliced the air, relishing in the sight of a larger meido before once again falling to his knees.

Once his weight hit the ground, Sesshomaru sucked in a heaving breath and shot to his feet. Gold eyes glanced this way and that, seeing the trees, the grass and the moon as well as the stars all around him. He was back but where was he before? His heart thudded in his chest wildly and looked down to see the Tenseiga still clasped tightly in his hand but he knew he didn't hold it before.

"Tenseiga. . . How?" Lifting up his head and glancing around where he knelt, he searched the trees like he were looking for something and one word fell through his lips like a call that echoed around him.

"Eavan?" He called and waited and yet no answer came. What was his thinking, he was calling for a dead woman but in his heart he was hoping for a reply that never came. With his attention pulled to the sword in his palm, a new wave of confusion flew through him.

Turning to his side and looking down right where he once kneeled, he saw the large burnt crater and a slit in the earth where a blade had once pierced. But how? How did the sword end up in his hand? What a mystery this blade truly was but it was no matter now, he was back to where he was supposed to be and angrier than before. Red bled into his gold eyes as they darted around the sky in hopes of seeing a certain demon but the sky was clear. Byakuya was gone.

That bastard had crossed a line, a line that screamed death. He manipulated him, fooled him and tortured him with the most personal and searing memories of his youth.

"He will die." He snarled to the heavens and upon sheathing Tenseiga, Sesshomaru turned and left the clearing to go find his pack