Title: Carry Me Home

Rating: PG-13 and R for violence and occasional sexual implications

Summary: Inuyasha's been wounded and is trapped in a sleep in which visions of a life he doesn't remember plague him. A life in which he was not a small child running from humans to become a nervous young man in love with a miko, but something else completely.

Disclaimer: Copyright for Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and the author does not write for profit

Author(ess): bluefuzzyelf

Chapter Six

Inuyasha did not take the time to creep through all the cells. One or two youkai woke, but they merely looked at him through haunted eyes. Inuyasha strode past them, his mind fixed on one thing and one things only: Finding Maiya.

As he neared the cages, he tensed his body for battle. There were always guards at the cages. He came in sight of them and they shouted, lunging for him. Inuyasha jumped into the air and brought Alitash's sword down, pushing it deep into the man where his neck and shoulder met. A quick second later, another guard was missing a head. Inuyasha could smell the blood and felt his youkai blood reacting to it. He thrust the sword through the last guard, the body sliding off the tip of his blade and landing with a slushy 'thump' in the middle of a pool of blood. The stench was almost unbearable.

Inuyasha broke the chain over the door with a few good hacks and kicked it open. The smell hit him first, excrement and fear and pain and decay. Then the noises, moans and whimpers, the dry hacks of sick fighters. Inuyasha grimaced and steeled himself, grabbing a torch off the wall outside the door. He walked into the cages, where the sun never shined and you were lucky if you died quickly. He walked by each pit, each cage, looking in and seeing either dead and mummified or decaying bodies. The first live one he came across bore an uncanny resemblance to Taji, so Inuyasha let him out. He wasn't too emaciated, and was well enough to run when Inuyasha told him to.

Inuyasha decided to call for her.

"Maiya! Maiya!"

He heard a groan. "Maiya!"

Another moan. He walked quickly to the pit it was coming from and looked down. He was met with the thin, dirty face of Maiya, her green eyes nearly swollen shut and her mouth too dry to say anything. Her body was thin, but her belly bloated out like she was pregnant. She wore nothing but a few filthy rags. He nearly wept at the sight of her.

He hacked at the chains holding the grate in place with enough ferocity to break them in two hits. He flung back the lid and reached down, lifting the pitifully light form of his little one into his arms. He still held Alitash's broadsword, and stuck it one-handed into his sash. Then he gathered Maiya into his arms and carried her out. She coughed, trying to say something.

"Shh, Maiya, don't talk. I'm getting you out of here." He strode out of the cages and headed back down to the tunnel, stopping for some water and a small bit of bread at the recently deceased guard's quarters. He set Maiya down for a moment and covered her with the silk haori he wore and trickled a few drops of water down her throat.

She tried to speak again, and Inuyasha leaned close to hear. "I always knew you'd come," she said, a faint smile on her face. Inuyasha kissed her gently on the forehead and scooped her up into his arms again.

When he emerged, he was met with a battlefield. Several soldiers were lying dead around him, and Miroku was holding onto his arm, pain etched across his face. Sango was limping, and Alitash's claws her soaked in blood. Inuyasha looked frantically around and saw Kagome safe in the bushes with Shippou in her lap.

"Let's go," he said tersely. They left the city as fast as they could with no more disturbances. As they reached camp, the alarms went off in the city. Inuyasha carried Kagome on his back, Maiya in his arms. Kirara, who had shown up sometime in between the city and the campsite, carried Sango and Miroku, Shippou holding on to Kirara's fur. Alitash ran alone.

They traveled hard again, all through the night. By dawn, the city was far behind, and they could stop for a rest.

Inuyasha sat down heavily after letting Kagome off, still cradling Maiya in his arms. Alitash crawled over and laid her hand on the girl's head.

"Oh, Maiya." She curled up by Inuyasha's knee, her head right by Maiya's.

Kagome tended Miroku's wound and Sango wrapped up the little scratch she had gotten from a guard's sword.

Kagome turned to Inuyasha and felt a sudden definite pang of loneliness and the feeling that she didn't belong. Inuyasha was stroking Maiya's face as he trickled water down her throat. Alitash was cleaning her weapon, glancing every so often at the poor girl in Inuyasha's arms.

Kagome steeled herself and walked over. "Can I help?"

Inuyasha looked at her and she was bowled over by the pain evident in his eyes.

"Can you?"

Kagome brought over her bag and took a small baby bottle from it. She filled it with water and handed it to Inuyasha.

"Small sips, remember. I have some oatmeal in my bag that I can make too. It's soft and easy to get down." She started a fire and set water to boil. Then, as she waited, she watched Inuyasha feed the girl in his arms. She had never seen him so open with his emotions, had never seen him care so much for the life of one person. She felt like an outsider. She didn't know this new Inuyasha, this commander of men and calm planner of infiltrations. He was a new breed altogether, a man in his own right and completely new territory to her. Was her Inuyasha in there anywhere?

That water boiled, and she mixed some instant oatmeal. She brought it over to Inuyasha.

"May I?"

He looked at her and nodded. Kagome sat by him, next to Maiya's head. She fed the girl tiny spoonful by tiny spoonful, going at a slow pace until all the oatmeal was gone and the girl asleep.

"This is Maiya?"

Inuyasha nodded. Alitash saw his distress and spoke for him. "She was our baby sister. We took care of her, Inuyasha most of all." She stood. "Can I can to you alone?"

Kagome nodded, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear in way that make Inuyasha's stomach flip. She left with Alitash a ways off, out of earshot for even Inuyasha's hearing.

Alitash faced her, arms crossed under a voluptuous chest. "Who are you to Inuyasha?"

Kagome blinked. "What?"

"Who are you to Inuyasha?"

Kagome blushed a bit. "I'm his shard detector. I find the shards of the Shikon jewel for him."

Alitash narrowed her eyes at the younger girl. "He does not look at you as one might a tool."

Kagome frowned. "Look, there's no need to get jealous. I know he doesn't feel like that for me, and I'm dealing with it. You don't have to worry about me getting in your way!"

Alitash grinned, throwing Kagome off. "You're lying to yourself, little one. I know how he looks at one he loves. You mustn't blame him for loving more than one. He'll decide, in his own time."

"And in the meantime, are you going to be sharing his bed?"

Alitash guffawed. "My, my, a sharp as a viper. Perhaps. But his bed doesn't belong to one woman solely until he's is mated. And he's not mated." Her eyes turned serious. "Listen to me, young one. I waited over fifty years for him. My love for him is as strong as it ever was. I know him better than he knows himself, sometimes. Tell me, can you claim the same? Would you wait for him?" Her voice was not accusatory, but inquisitive.

Kagome glared. "I would wait for him beyond this life and into the afterlife."

Alitash nodded. "But do you know him? Do you listen to him, little one?" Kagome didn't speak. "I did not think so. You strike me as the kind of woman who easily assumes things and is stubborn to change your view. The Inuyasha you knew is gone. I didn't know him, nor do I know if I would've loved him like I love this Inuyasha, but I know that the man sitting over there is capable of many things, and that includes loving more than one woman."

"Are you warning me off or telling me to go ahead?"

Alitash grinned. "I am telling you that you need to relax. One thing you learn in the cells is that no one is monogamous."

Kagome frowned. "He is. He was so devoted to Kikyou that"

"He thinks that that relationship was fated to doom. That the feelings he had towards this miko were so easily turned to hate makes him wonder if they were meant to be. See, my little priestess, you have much to learn about our hanyou."

"You know his mind, do you?"

"No," Alitash admitted readily. "But I can read him. There's something in his eyes that was never there when he looked at me, and it's there when he looks at you. I'm asking you if you would wait because he'll come."

"Are you going to ask me if I would die for him too?"

"No, because that's easy. I'm going to ask you if you'll live for him."

Kagome opened her mouth, and then stopped. Alitash smiled, a real smile.

"I don't want to compete with you, because it'd be futile. Let us have our time before it ends. We never got to finish what we started. I want you to know him like I do, because that's what he'll need. Pay attention to him, miko. Learn him like I did." She grinned wickedly then. "But hold off on the mapping of his body until I'm gone, okay?"

Kagome laughed in spite of herself. "I know my Inuyasha, but this new man is completely different."

"I'll help you."

"You'd help me learn how to steal his love for you?"

"No, because one can't steal love from another. I'm willing to share his heart, Kagome, because I'm content with any bit of his heart."

Kagome looked at the older woman, her eyes shining in gratitude. "Thank you."

"It's no problem. I've never had a quarrel with sharing. Besides," she said, scanning Kagome's body, "you're one I wouldn't mind sharing my bed and my man with."

Alitash laughed long and hard as Kagome squealed and blushed to her feet.

Inuyasha was talking to Maiya softly as the other two women in his life went to have a talk. He explained everything to her and apologized again and again for not being there for her. She raised a weak hand and placed it on his face. She smiled. "I always knew you'd come for us. There's no reason," she coughed, "to say sorry. Now, could I get a bath?"

Inuyasha laughed a bit. "Yeah. It won't be as nice as an actual bath, but I think I can handle a little cleaning up."

He set her gently on a bedroll and heated some water over the fire. Luckily, most of it was still warm. He sniffed out where the water came from and located a small stream running right by where they had collapsed.

The water was hot and Inuyasha took a small cloth from Kagome's bag and wet it, sponging the dirt and filth off Maiya's face. Pale skin was slowly revealed, a small cut on her cheek festering. As he moved down, washing her neck and shoulders, he noticed bruises and other small slices in her skin. He held back his rage and was happy to think of the three very dead guards he had left laying dead in their own blood.

Inuyasha cleaned Maiya as well as he could. He placed a blanket over her chest and his haori over her most private of areas and sponged off her stomach and legs. She giggled she he cleaned the backs of her knees. He was glad to note that her stomach was back to normal and she didn't seem as weak as she had before. She was still frail, muscles that hadn't been used in years just waking back up, her body too thin for her height.

He was working on her legs when Kagome and Alitash returned. He was relieved to find that some of the tension that had been between them before had dissipated. He wondered what they talked about.

Maiya smiled at Alitash and held out her hand. Alitash knelt by the girl and gripped her hand. "We weren't sure if you were still alive."

Maiya smiled. "I stayed alive because I knew you'd get me out."

Alitash smiled, her eyes brimming with tears. "I love you, little sister." She kissed Maiya on her forehead. Inuyasha went about cleaning the infected sores on Maiya's body.

Miroku and Sango, who had been suspiciously absent, returned soon with freshly caught fish and a rabbit, which Shippou carried in proud paws.

"Look, Inuyasha! I caught a rabbit!" The corners of Inuyasha's mouth kicked up.

"Did you?"

"Yeah! All by myself! My foxfire is a lot stronger now, and all I had to do was scare it towards me. Here. It's for you."

Inuyasha ruffled the kit's hair. "Thanks runt."

Kagome held out her arms for the fox. He jumped into them readily. She held him to her tightly as she observed the new Inuyasha, the one shaped by the arena and not solely by betrayal. He was gentler with Maiya than she could've imagined and more tolerant of Shippou. The kit had obviously started growing up sometime during their trip. She pressed a small kiss to his temple.

Miroku and Sango set about cooking dinner while Shippou entertained himself with a coloring book. Alitash had been intrigued by it and was now watching avidly as Shippou splashed the pages with vibrant color.

Kagome dressed Maiya in the set of green robes she had worn the day before. They suited the pale girl, bringing out her luminous eyes and setting off her dark hair.

When dinner was ready, Kagome set a bowl of ramen in front of Miroku and Inuyasha. She handed out portions of fish and rabbit as well. Miroku did not eat meat, but he did not push the others to give it up either.

Inuyasha ate his ramen with his customized speed and his portion of rabbit. He then sat by Maiya, tipping some of the leftover broth down her throat. She smiled brilliantly at him, still pretty much unable to move.

Alitash watched them with affection in her face, polishing her sword. She worked on it until it was as reflective as a mirror. Beds were made and the fire was banked. Shippou was already fast asleep in Kagome's sleeping bag as usual, after marking it with his distinctive scent that screamed 'MINE!' to anything with even a decent nose. Alitash had raised her eyebrows at that, but Inuyasha had just rolled his eyes.

Inuyasha and Alitash stayed up far after the others had succumbed to sleep. Inuyasha was absently fiddling with his sword, twirling it in front of him, staring at the flames. Alitash watched him, trying to decipher his life from his face. He looked at her, his eyes on fire from the firelight.

"You didn't remember." It was not a question.

"No. And see where it got me. Pinned to a tree for fifty years."

Tash raised an eyebrow. "So how come no one let you out until Kagome?"

Inuyasha sighed. "They thought I killed Kikyou. This guy she was tending had a thing for her and gave his soul to demons so he could move again. He'd been burned in a fire. He became Naraku and attacked Kikyou when she was supposed to meet me with the jewel. He clawed her. When Kikyou didn't meet me, I thought she'd betrayed me and I went on a rampage, destroying the village. I grabbed the jewel and ran into the forest. She caught up to me and shot me."

Tash narrowed her eyes. "Uh huh. Short version. And why was she going to give you the jewel?"

Inuyasha didn't answer.

"Yash," Tash said, her voice a warning.

"I was going to use it to become human. If you make a pure wish on it, it's supposed to disappear. I was going to turn human so Kikyou and I could live together. All she ever wanted was to be a normal woman."

"Human!" Alitash took a drink of water. "Human."

Inuyasha looked down. "Yeah. Then Kagome came and freed me from the spell."

"Why?"

"Because I woke up and told her if she didn't want to get killed by the giant centipede attacking us, she'd better get me down. She pulled it right out and it disintegrated."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"A lot."

"Like what?"

"Like Kagome's the reincarnation of Kikyou. Like she was born with the Shikon jewel in her hip. Like that's the only reason I woke up. Like Kikyou's now wandering the earth, eating souls and intent on dragging my soul to hell." Inuyasha took a long drag of water.

"She's alive? How?"

"No, she's very much dead. She'd made out of clay. Some evil miko made her and brought her back to life with a bit of Kagome's soul. All that fuels her is her hatred for me. She still wants my life, even though she knows Naraku was to blame." He paused.

"Kagome broke the jewel with a magic arrow, trying to stop the crow that was flying off with it. It shattered, and we've been looking for all the shards to put them back together, as well as searching for Naraku. We've all got a reason to kill him."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. The monk has an inherited hole in his hand that will suck up anything in its way. Naraku cursed his grandfather, and so now the curse will continue until the last of Miroku's line dies of Naraku is killed."

"Why is he in such a hurry?"

"He won't make it past twenty-five. The hole will suck him up. It gets bigger every day.

"Sango's family was murdered by Naraku. She comes from a long line of taijiya. Her brother is being controlled by Naraku to do his bidding."

"Shippou?"

"Well, he lost his parents, but it was to a pair of demons we killed already. He has just as much reason to hate Naraku as the rest of us though. The man is evil, in every sense of the word.

"He's also a hanyou."

"What?" Alitash's deceptive doe-eyes widened.

"Yeah."

Alitash stared into the flame. "What about Kagome?"

"Huh? What about her?"

"Why does she follow you?"

"She's the only one who can sense the jewel shards."

Alitash gave him a Look. "You couldn't ever manage lie to me, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha sighed. "Because she cares. She cares more than anyone I've ever known. Her heart is so pure Tash. It's like nothing I've ever heard of. She can purify a shard with a touch."

"Why do you let her follow you?"

"Because I care. I know she thinks it's because she looks like Kikyou, but it's not. That girl will worm her way into your heart with no effort. It's a good thing she's on our side."

"I've seen the way you look at her."

Inuyasha looked at Alitash. Her skin glowed in the firelight and her eyes were big and expressive.

"I still love you, Tash. It's a fierce as ever, because it's all like it just happened to me. But," he looked away, "I can't explain it. I don't know how I feel."

"Would you die for her?"

"I nearly do every day. That girl gets into more trouble than Maiya."

"I noticed," she replied dryly. "She took up with you, didn't she?" Inuyasha whapped at her. "Well, I get it. You're torn between your dead love and her reincarnation. That's only slightly twisted."

"Ha ha. She makes me feel like I'm home. I didn't know it at the time, but she gives me the same feeling you did, Tash."

"And now I'm back, along with a life you didn't know you had."

Inuyasha smiled. "I'm not complaining. Yet." He leaned towards her, one hand resting on fire-heated skin. She focussed her eyes on his mouth. When they met, it was as fiery and passionate as ever. Her curled his hands around her brown skin, running them across the smooth planes of her back. She buried her fingers in his hair, nipping at his mouth. She could feel him smile against her lips.

Alitash moved to straddle his waist and he placed his hands on the smooth curves of her waist. They didn't stop kissing. Alitash moved her hands into his shirt, caressing his hard chest.

Miroku shifting in his sleep was what broke the mood. They both started and froze, then laughed at each other and Alitash twisted around, sitting in-between his legs.

"Oh, no, don't do that," Inuyasha said, his mouth at the back of her neck. "We'll get started again."

Alitash laughed. She climbed out of his lap, ignoring the small whimper he let loose at her absence.

"Good night, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha leveled a glare at her, but smiled all the same. He leaped into a tree.

"Good night, Tash."

Neither noticed Kagome close glistening eyes and breathe her own good night into the cool, uncaring night air.