Sigh. I hate updating because I have to. I am dead serious, I haven't updated with no reviews in a while, and I don't plan to ever again. There's no fun in doing that. I write this story for me, I put it up here for you guys. I KNOW that some of you have read the last chapter, (Since I heard you read it…) so please, PLEASE review! Oh well, I promised. But next time, no new chapter until lot's of reviews, I'm serious. I can wait, but can you? Remember to review! PLEASE!

Hello again! In this chapter my OC is OOC…what does OOC stand for anyway? How many times have I asked that? Well, read on! And I hope you enjoy this chapter of Turns Of Time.

Disclaimer: Nevermore! I will never own Inu and more, thus…Nevermore! It makes perfect sense to me!

Her Lie

Chapter #31 of Turns Of Time

By Pwalefriend

There they swam, undisturbed by the troubles that went on in the world around them. Uncaring, emotionless, and most especially unaware of the inevitable doom that was awaiting them in the form of the curved talons hovering just inches above the surface of the water.

"Inuyasha?" Came Jenny's voice from behind the hanyou. Inuyasha jumped, startled by her sudden appearance, and lost his footing. He slipped and fell into the river with a great KER-SPLASH, in the process frightening all the fish away. Inuyasha glared for a second after his prey's hastily retreating fishy tails, but they disappeared from sight with surprising agility and he turned his angry gaze towards the one who had insinuated the fall. If Jenny had been her usual cheerful and carefree (And, to be honest, down-right annoying) normal self she would have giggled at how much he looked like a wet soggy puppy, but she wasn't her cheerful and carefree (And, to be honest, down-right annoying) normal self. Instead she was worried, her chest constricting and she was wringing her hands. She couldn't help but be concerned about how this was all going to turn out…and if Inuyasha was going to try and kill her or not. But she couldn't turn back now; she had grown too fond of these people to not tell them. Even if they hated her for it. And if you think that this happened very often with Jenny, think again. The last time she had opened up to someone she had fallen in love with that someone. Namely Sesshomaru. And it hadn't exactly ended that well the first time around, considering they had been separated and had believed each other to be dead for one hundred years. Not exactly the most encouraging of memories. But still…

"Inuyasha…" Jenny repeated, her eyes slightly down cast. She wrung her hands once more and Inuyasha frowned. He might not have ever shown it to anyone but Kagome and Shippo (at least not purposely that is to say.) but he actually did care a great deal about what happened to those that he traveled with, and he knew that he had Jenny to thank for a great deal. Also, something about her was bugging something in the very back of his memory. 'What's wrong with her?' He wondered.

"What's wrong with you, wench?" He asked her. After all, Inuyasha was always one to speak his mind. As long his mind wasn't speaking anything that could be thought of as a weakness that is.

"I've got something that I should explain…do you think that you could find Kagome and Shippo and meet the rest of us back at Kaede's hut?" Jenny asked him. Inuyasha shrugged.

"Sure." He said, turning back to the river. "Just let me catch some food first."

"Now." Jenny said, in such a tone that Inuyasha found himself several meters away from the river and towards the meadow where Kagome was playing with Shippo before he knew what he was doing.

"Hey!" He said, turning back around to yell at Jenny for manipulating him like that. But he could see the riverbank through the trees, and the woman was clearly no longer there. Inuyasha shuddered, chills running up and down his arms. "Weird wench." He muttered to himself as he shrugged and continued on towards Kagome and Shippo.

"Mama! Mama!" Shippo cried, running up to Kagome. She was sitting with her legs crossed in the middle of the field, reading some weird cheesy romance novel that she had brought back with her to her time and fiddling with the full Shikon jewel that hung around her neck.

"Mmm…yeah Shippo?" Kagome asked, leaning over slightly to see what he was trying to show her.

Shippo's hands were clasped together, forming a small cup around something within his hands that fluttered lightly; it's gentle wing tips brushing against his palms like a baby's breath.

"What's this?" He asked her. She peered closer and saw what he held captive. A sweet smile lit her face and she took his tiny paws in her own delicate hands and slowly, gently; she opened them up, releasing the beautiful orange and black butterfly to the outside world.

"It's called a Monarch Butterfly." She told him. "Every year they all migrate to the south, to a country called Mexico, across the seas." She told him. She didn't know what a Monarch Butterfly was doing there, in Japan. She didn't even think that they were native to her hemisphere. But life was full of surprises, and she didn't know for sure that it was a Monarch Butterfly.

"Kagome! Shippo! Oy!" Came Inuyasha's voice from somewhere behind the pair. Shippo and Kagome both turned to face him, identical questioning looks on their faces.

"What is it, Inuyasha?" Kagome called.

"Jenny wants us all at the hut for some reason." Inuyasha answered. "She says that she's got something to tell us."

"What is it?" Kagome asked as she stood, giving Shippo a hand-up as well. As Inuyasha walked over to them she brushed herself and the little kitsune off.

"How the hell should I know?" He said. "I can't read her mind! And even if I could I'd probably end up being so damn confused that I wouldn't even be able to walk straight." Kagome laughed a little, not at his words, but at the gruff way he said them.

"And yet you still care." She said out-loud.

"What was that wench?"

"Nothing."

Shippo looked up at his adoptive parents. Their teasing banter was cute, so cute in fact that even he, a little boy, was struck hard by the cuteness of it all. Shippo felt a big grin spread across his face ad he gripped both Kagome and Inuyasha's hand. Shippo half-expected Inuyasha to pull away but the hanyou just looked down at him questioningly, along with Kagome.

"Come on!" Shippo said. "It's probably something important! Maybe it's got to do with the jewel!" At his words, though they were said with a light heart, a more serious mood drifted over the trio as they set out to Kaede's hut.

The jewel…Inuyasha sighed deeply as he thought about it. For so long it had been an unattainable item. When he had first met Kikyo it was all he had ever thought about. And now, thinking back to it, he realized that his desire for Kikyo had actually been severely mixed up with his desire for the cursed jewel. And what if the legend was true, and the jewel really was cursed? It was the truth that everyone who had ever come in contact with the jewel had been met with some sort of painful and unfortunate demise…everyone, that is to say, except for them. Sure, they had all had their fair shares of misfortune related to the jewel. Inuyasha had been "betrayed" and had in turn "betrayed" Kikyo. Shippo's biological father had been murdered for his jewel shard. Sango's entire village had been murdered by demons working for Naraku, just to gain the jewel shards that the village had harbored. Miroku's entire family had been cursed for generations by a demon that had been basically created out of lust for the jewels power. And the jewel shards and the quest to collect them had basically stolen Kagome's innocence. In fact, the jewel was what had gotten her into this whole mess in the first place, because Mistress Centipede had dragged her through the well because the demon had sensed the jewel that had been hidden within Kagome's body. But…if the jewel was truly as cursed as it seemed then why had it all turned out so wonderful?

Inuyasha's musings were interrupted by Kagome as she began to hum a simple tune, barely loud enough for his demon hearing to pick up, and yet still loud enough to pull him from his thoughts. His face softened as he looked at her, love shining like a flame in his eyes. 'So remarkably wonderful…' he thought.

"There you guys are!" Sango said from the open door way of Kaede's hut. They had reached the edge of the village where the old miko's home stood. It was her home, and it was also the meeting place and home base of the Inu-Pack.

As Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo all walked to the hut hand in hand they noticed that all the Guardians were sitting around it but outside, and they were all looking decidedly nervous. In fact, Lia and KK were arguing in hushed voices, which, may I add, was a highly unusual event. Usually when any of the Guardians argue (quite frequently at that) they do so in the loudest and most active way possible. But now, instead of the happy and playful air that usually followed these new friends around like the plague a definite feeling of tension and nerves hung in the air, and behind their usually laughing and mischievous eyes Inuyasha could see the millennia's of pain and horror that these immortals had been through. 'That's right…' He thought. 'Most of these people are probably as old as Time itself…' Kagome was thinking along the same lines as him.

'Though they certainly don't act it.' She thought. For a moment she remembered the incredulity she had felt when Sango has filled her in about what Jenny and all of Jenny's friends really were. Kagome would have gone on recollecting her response, but suddenly she found herself in the hut and sitting in between Inuyasha and Sango with Shippo in her lap. Miroku was sitting on the other side of Sango and Kaede was in the far corner with Rin next to her. Rin was tying bundles of herbs together and Kaede was grinding something on her pedestal. Jenny was sitting in front of all of them, her eyes down cast and tightly gripping Sesshomaru's hand; he was sitting besides her as well. Even Shippo began to feel the suffocating sense of foreboding that flavored the air. It was a couple minutes where no one made a sound, and they only heard the labored and (if they hadn't known better) slightly fearful breathing of Jenny, and naturally the sounds from outside the hut but no one paid attention to those. Finally, after a couple minutes of this incomplete silence, Jenny looked up and began to talk.

"First…" She began. "I would like to tell you that my name is not really Jenny. I think that by now you'll have noticed that every once and awhile someone will call me Moga? Well, that's my real nickname. But you shouldn't use it very much for reasons that I will soon explain. I can't tell you my real name because that would be too dangerous…" Jenny paused and looked around at all of them. "You all know the story of the Guardian Queen, right?" She asked, and was greeted by nods. Refer back to chapter 12 or 13, depending on whether you do it by my count or theirs.

"Well, you know how she supposedly died?" Jenny asked, once again greeted by nods all around. Except this time their were many dubious looks at the word "supposedly." "Well…she didn't." Jenny said. "She's still alive, but she can't take the throne."

"How do you know that she's still alive?" Sango asked, curious and also still a little bit dubious.

"I know…believe me." Jenny looked at them all straight in the eye now, her whole face seemed to flash with a regal light. "I am her, after all. I am the Guardian Queen."

Ooo! Now Jenny's identity has been revealed! How many of you saw that coming? How many of you even understand the relevance of that? Don't worry, I've still got quite a bit to explain. Most of the explaining that I still have to do I hope I'll be able to do in the next chapter. It's going to be a serious case of, "Let me explain…no, too long. Let me sum up." After all, what led up to this story is all going to be explained in completely different story, a.k.a. the Prequel, which I'm already planning. Sigh. So much work, so little time. Good thing manga takes such a long time; it doesn't look like my obsession will be ending any time soon. Well, remember to review!

TTFN, Ta ta for now!

Pwalefriend

Hey…it's back!

A Penny For Your Thoughts: What's all this about Jenny being the Queen? Isn't that girl supposed to be dead? And what about Muso, why'd they save him? Where did they take Muso?

For those of you who don't know, Muso is Onigumo.