The Puppet Master

Seine: Hehehehe, I wonder what Sesshomaru is going to do in this chapter....

Kagome: Eat vitamins? Stay healthy and fit? Teach me an easier way to do trigonometry?

Seine: Erm, not exactly.

Sesshy: Well, actually the key to trigonometry is-

Seine: Let's just start the show, shall we? I don't own Inuyasha, but I own Fahna, that's my own character.

" Sesshomaru." Inuyasha stated, already worried about his human form, and it was no where near sunrise. Kagome stepped in front of Inuyasha, raising her arrow, Agony laying at her feet.

" What do you want?" Sesshomaru began walked forward, the ice mask still in place. He came to a standstill in front of Sango, who was NOT going to move. With this new hanyou stuff, she could probably be a bit more daring for the team.

" It's not what I want, it's what the Tenseiga wants. It drew me here, but I do not know why it draws me to this area. Normally it would want me to revive something, but there is truely nothing to revive, and that woman is not what the Tenseiga wants. So I am here, on Tenseiga's terms, not my own." He stated, staring straight through Sango. She simply stared back, and they broke their stare, when Fahna spoke.

" Perhaps we should return to the hut, standing here is not safe. Tenseiga won't permit you to kill any of us, I'm sure of that." She stated, and they began walking towards the hut. When they got inside, Kagome sat down on the floor, after tucking in Shippo.

" We should think of something to stop Naraku from spreading any farther. His aura is stronger every time we face him..." Miroku stated, slumping down onto the floor, in one of the corners. Kagome looked down, and the air seemed to go cold, even though the fire was blazing.

" He's like a fire... He just keeps burning things, spreading his wickedness. And when they put the fire out, there's nothing left. No sweet grass, no tall trees, no new baby sister.... Just ashes of a perfect world that should have been there forever. And it always leaves an empty shell of a person, filled with nothing but big, bright lies. Pretending to live in a white lie, instead of seeing the darkened truth of what I've become... Then the time of moving on passes, I find there's another world, and that same fire is spreading there, taking everything from others the same as they took from me. And then we need to figure out the answer, because he'll just keep spreading..." Kagome stated, her face cast down in shadow. Sango draped her arm around Kagome's shoulder.

" Are you alright, Kags?" Kagome nodded, still looking down.

" I...I just need some sleep, that's all. Goodnight, everyone." Kagome said quietly, curling up in the corner with an old blanket. Inuyasha walked over to Kagome, taking some of the blanket, curling Kagome in his arms. She sighed in her sleep. Sango turned away, smiling slightly to herself. She looked around the room. Fahna was cuddled up with Kilala, looking content, and she was purring. Miroku was downcast in shadows, obviously staring at his right hand.

But when she looked towards Sesshomaru, he was staring at her. Rin was cuddled up with his fluffy mass of fur, causing Sango to almost giggle. Jaken was in the corner, obviously brooding over some unknown matter. She snickered a bit at Jaken, what a little dirty thing he was. She looked back to Rin. She seemed as though she was Sesshomaru's child, though they look nothing alike. Thanks to the mysterious Tenseiga, Rin is alive, and seems to just be loving the attention of Sesshomaru. Strange, a demon taking in a child. Especially a demon that appears to be ice cold inside and out.

" Sango," Miroku called out, standing up. " Would you care to come for a walk? I need to speak to you." He was strangely quiet, not having much of an expression on his face. Sango nodded, and stood up, walked to the door. She then glanced back at everyone.

" Sesshomaru, keep and eye on them. And no tricks or killing anyone." She could have sworn he flashed a half smile. She concluded, as she and Miroku walked towards a small clearing, that her mind had played a funny trick on her, thinking he smiled. Sango and Miroku sat down in the clearing, Sango leaning up against a tall tree. Miroku sat beside her, and sighed deeply.

" Sango, when you changed, did you notice anything different?" Sango was slightly taken aback at Miroku's bluntness. She nodded, and looked towards another tree.

" Well, I felt... Powerful. I knew that I was higher in the chain of life, I knew that I could do more. It felt... Good to protect my friends, more then usual. It almost felt good to kill, I'd be lying if I said it didn't, but it wasn't supremely good, just a slight pang. Demon or not, I will not sink to become a killing monster. I could smell everything, hear everything, it almost seemed like I could taste what they were feeling. First it scared me, but now I know how to deal with it..." She explained, looking back to Miroku.

" Ok, I just needed to know that. Hey, did you make sense of what Kagome was saying? I've never heard her speak so darkly, and about what I have no idea. Has she ever said anything like that before." Sango shook her head.

" I'm going to ask her though. She was speaking of a fire, comparing it to Naraku, how he destroys things. Perhaps she lost something in a fire, but when she started talking about a baby sister, I lost her completely. I only know of Souta, do you think she has a sister? I'm beginning to think that Kagome's mind goes a little bit deeper into darkness then I thought it did." Miroku nodded.

" That's what I was thinking. What she said, it was twisted. Seeming like a sickening version of what we thought she has seen. We should head back now, it's almost midnight." Sango nodded, and stood up, helping Miroku up. They walked quietly back to the little hut. When they walked in, Rin was cuddled up Kilala and Fahna, Jaken was asleep in the corner, and Kagome was on Inuyasha's lap, her head tucked into his neck. Every one of them was asleep, except for Sesshomaru. He was finishing a family tree, which Inuyasha had started a while back.

" Please try to be quiet, Rin is sleeping." Sesshomaru whispered, still working at the bristle board. Sango nodded, and watched (still standing) as Miroku fell asleep in another corner. She smiled slightly, then sat in front of the fire, staring into it's depths. She sat up straight when she felt a cold hand on her shoulder. She looked back, and saw Sesshomaru sitting directly beside her, staring into the fire. He removed his hand after a moment.

" How does it feel?" Sango blinked.

" How does what feel?" Sesshomaru let out a breath.

" Being a hanyou of course. What's it like? I won't have the experience, and I'm sure as hell not asking Inuyasha." Sango smiled lightly. Little did they know that Inuyasha was wide awake. He had to refrain himself from snickering.

" Um... Well, it's hard to explain. It feels almost like a jewel shard, the strength to go on. Except the fact that I have the soul and the heart to restrain myself. I've never felt this kind of power, this kind of control with anything else. I hear everything, I can smell things that I couldn't before, I move faster, I can almost taste the air and the feelings in it. Kind of scary." Sango explained, curling her knees up to her chest.

" So it seems as though the only difference is the will power, though I personally have no troubles with my own free will. Other demons do, but I can tell when I begin to anger, they really can't." Sango yawned, a stretched her arm out high. Sesshomaru caught her arm, and leaned very close to her, his nose almost touching hers.

" I must mention I hate humans. But for some strange reason I am attracted to you... Why?" Sango blinked, confused and a little bit scared of their closeness. She thought for a moment.

" I... I don't really know." Sesshomaru almost smiled again.

" I'll tell you why... You're vicious, clean and precise, and you only kill when you truely need to. Not like a barbarian human or aconiving demon. Yet you show mercy, and sincerity, no backwards plans. And you smell like a garden. Goodnight, Sango."

Seine: No one is reviewing, but Meh, my confidence will rise again...

Sango: What the hell are you doing with the plot, anyway?

Seine: R&R!! I dunno, something...