I do not own much of anything…this is the disclaimer, and I hope I feel better soon lol ouchies…on with the show…

Have You Someone to Protect

Rin lay in Sesshoumaru's arms on the cliff, under the trees where he had moved her and their belongings. Both were asleep (yet again) as the winds began to change to a deranged gust.

Sesshoumaru bolted awake and pulled his slacks on, covering Rin in his shirt as she stirred and looked at him strangely. "What's going on?" she asked.

He looked around suspiciously, "Someone is here."

"Why is it that people like to look at others sleep? It's really rude." she muttered. He smiled some and began to say something as he sensed something coming straight at them, more Rin than anyone.

He dodged in front of her as a sword came closer. He grunted as it sliced into his abdomen. Even though they were bonded by blood, Rin couldn't feel it, but she saw it. "Sesshoumaru!" she got up quickly as he pulled the sword out of his flesh and threw it to the side.

"Rin, get away." he warned her for her safety.

"But-"

"Go." he looked coldly down at her and she froze a moment. His eyes were cold as ice but for a moment, he bent down and kissed her gently, whispering against her lips, "please."

She nodded, touched his cheek and whispered back, "Be careful, I love you Sesshoumaru."

"I love you as well Rin, now go."

As she ran and hid, the gust of wind slowed, retreated and came back as a tornado. Sesshoumaru's claws began to glow as he summoned his whip, slashing at the whirlwind, hitting it's mark.

A woman appeared, a cut across her cheek began to bleed. She smiled, "Hello Sesshoumaru."

He tensed, "Who are you? What business do you have with me?"

"I have come to take you as my mate. You should feel lucky." she smiled, her dark ruby red lips glistened as her fangs bared to him.

He growled, "I'm repulsed instead."

She tsked him and held out her hand, pulling Rin out of hiding and into her grasp, a sword appeared in her hand as she held it to Rin's neck.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, "Release her."

The woman shook her head, "She won't be as soon as I turn back the time."

"What?" Sesshoumaru didn't like the sound of that, and nor did Rin.

Rin swallowed hard, "Sesshoumaru…"

He made a step forward and the woman began to speak, "You are human and have no right to call him by such informalities."

Rin almost growled at the witch, her eyes began to glow golden as her fangs became more evident and her claws grew out from her regular nails. "And you're a bitch and have no right in this realm."

The woman laughed, "Ah, perhaps I should have introduced myself as Sesshoumaru asked." Rin and Sesshoumaru looked at each other as the woman continued, "I am Niora, keeper of time and the ability of wind is just a perk. I shall take Sesshoumaru back in time, before he met you as a child and make him my mate. That is how I will reverse your mating so he may mate me."

Rin scoffed, "Nonsense, you cannot change a mating." Sesshoumaru was silent. She looked at him strangely, "She can't, right?"

"She's the only one who can." he muttered.

Rin paled as Niora threw her to the side and bolted at Sesshoumaru who attempted to dodge but the wind brought him to her instead. She grabbed his shoulders and smirked, "This may hurt." and they vanished.

Rin's demonic features disappeared as did her memories of Sesshoumaru and everyone else. Again, she was alone.

----

Sesshoumaru and Niora appeared right after Inuyasha sliced his arm off. She figured it would be as good a time as any.

"Sesshoumaru, how bout we begin the ritual?"

Sesshoumaru looked at her, "Who are you?" his memory had faded.

"I am Niora, you promised we would mate one day when we were kids." she fiddled with his memories in time, and put that falsified image into his mind.

He gave her a droll look, "I have no use for a wench like you."

She growled and grabbed him by his arm, "We will mate, you shall see."

Sesshoumaru shrugged her off, "Do well not to touch me for you shall perish if you do so again."

----

Kagome and the others looked out to the road as they saw Rin in a black silk shirt walking alone, looking around, everyone staring at her as if she were scum.

"What is wrong with Sesshoumaru!" Kagome gasped and ran up to Rin, "Rin, are you alright?"

Rin looked to the strange woman, "Who are you?"

Kagome's face came to high alert, "Rin, do you remember anything? I'm Kagome, remember? Inuyasha? Sesshoumaru? Jakken?"

Rin shook her head, "I do not know of who or what you speak of."

Kagome gasped, "Come with me, we have a lot to get to the bottom of."

-----

"So you mean you don't remember anything?" Sango asked.

Jakken was in tears, "She doesn't remember me!"

"All I remember is wolf demons killed my parents and the villagers."

Kagome froze, 'Wolf…demons? Was Kouga involved?' she shook the thought, "Rin, you don't remember anything else?"

"No. I'm sorry." Rin looked down shamefully.

"No, don't be. It's ok, I'm sure you'll get it back soon." Kagome reassured her.

Rin sighed, "May I ask something?"

"Sure." Kagome was all up for anything to spark her memory.

"Do demons eat human food? For some reason, I feel as if one as told me they do not…and it seems I tried to hand him bugs and what nots…but I cannot place anything else."

Kagome's eyes widened, 'She must be talking of Sesshoumaru!'

-----

Sesshoumaru neared a village and looked around, it was on a small river. Niora was still on his tail in hot pursuit.

"Be gone or I shall dispose of you myself." he muttered.

"No chance, you promised." she was persistent, he'd give her that, but a nuisance as well.

He stopped and knelt down by a tree. For some reason, this didn't feel right at all. As if…he should be injured? Weird.

A little girl in an orange kimino ran up to him, dirt covering her face as she smiled up at him, "Hello, my name is Rin."

RIN

He looked at her strangely, a pain surging into his brain as he recalled some strange memories with the girl he couldn't possibly have had.

"Lord Sesshoumaru! Look at all the pretty flowers! Can we rest here? I'd like to make a necklace! Or a crown! Will you help me Lord Sesshoumaru?"

---

"Lord Sesshoumaru, you are a demon and demons killed the ones that I loved, will you kill me as well?"

"No."

"Why not? Isn't that what demons do?"

Sesshoumaru looked back to her and knelt down, brushing her hair away from her face, "Rin, I have no reason to kill you. Fear not the possibility for it is slim."

She smiled, "Thank you Lord Sesshoumaru."

----

"LORD SESSHOUMARU! HELP ME!"

-----

"Lord Sesshoumaru." she held up Tensiaga, "Your sword."

----

He looked to the tensaiga and then back to the girl, she never touched it. Why was he thinking of all this?

Niora appeared and growled at the little version of Rin, "Be gone you human spawn, you are not wanted."

Rin's face fell as she looked to Sesshoumaru and then back to Niora, then back to Sesshoumaru again, "It was nice to meet you." she bowed to Sesshoumaru and walked off, shoulders fallen in defeat of having a friend.

Sesshoumaru stood up and turned towards Niora, his hand around her neck, a deadly glare in his eyes, he remembered a girl like Rin but it was impossible for that to be her, or was it?

Niora's face appeared frightened and then regained composure, "What is the matter, Sesshoumaru? Do you forget you are a demon and do not meddle with humans?"

Sesshoumaru growled and threw her to the ground, "Do not follow me." he ordered and walked after the little girl.

Niora's eyes became red with hate, 'How can he still love that little brat if he doesn't even know who she is! Where has this gone wrong!'

---

Sesshoumaru caught up to the little girl easily by the lake shore a little ways down the current. He paused and saw her feet dangling above the water and then making a tiny splash as she swung them to and throw.

In any other case, he would have thought she was fine. But he saw her tears on her cheeks. At least she tried to hide them from others, he'd give her credit for that.

He neared her, "If you pretend to be strong and brave, you'll eventually believe your own imagination."

She gasped and looked up to him, "It's you!" she rubbed her tears away as he watched her with curious eyes.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Rin, I told you silly." she smiled some as he sat down a few feet from her.

"It feels as if I've met you before…but that's impossible."

Rin nodded, "I have never seen you before. What is your name?"

He looked at the water, "My name is Sesshoumaru."

She smiled and looked at the water, "That's a nice name."

He looked to her strangely, "My father named me."

She froze and looked down, "Mine is dead. Both my parents are."

Slowly pieces of his memory were adding up more, but he couldn't place why he felt a bond to this girl.

----

The wolf demons slaughtered the villagers. Sesshoumaru's memory soared, he had revived her! Had he not been there at the time, she would have died alone. He took her under his wing. But this was the past.

What if he revived her now? He looked at her body, dead before him. He took the tensaiga and sliced her with it.

Niora came up just in time to see the girl stir, "NO!" she screamed, her red eyes glaring at the little girl, "WHY WON'T YOU DIE!"

Sesshoumaru ran up to Niora with his Sounga, "I could ask the same of you!" he sliced her without a hassle and the images around him faded.

He was back on the cliff, Rin was gone. Where could she be? He grabbed the remaining articles of clothing and ran to Kaede's hut, maybe they knew what to do. He had to find Rin!

----

Rin came awake with a start, "Sesshoumaru!"

Kagome and the others all stopped in their actions and looked at her, "Rin! You remember Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked and ran up to her.

"Kagome?" she looked around, "Sango? Kohaku?" the others were out doing errands.

"Rin! You're back!" Kagome laughed and hugged her.

----

Sesshoumaru knew that voice, he knew his name as well off her lips. 'Rin.' he ran to the hut and burst threw the door, his chest heaving from the outrageous amount of energy he used to get to her side, but it was worth it. For her, he'd use even more for even longer, he'd find it somewhere.

"Sesshoumaru!" Rin scrambled up, clothed in a kimino of Kagome's and ran into his arms. He held her fast and buried his head into her locks.

He was still bleeding from the current time frame, even if he had traveled in time, his body had not fully healed from the sword wound. She felt it seep through her cloth, "Your wound." she brought him to wear she had laid and made him sit down.

She grabbed a bowl of warm water, herbs and a cloth and began to tend to it. "Rin…"

"I'm sorry Sesshoumaru, I didn't mean to be such a nuisance. I didn't know where you were so I came back here. But I didn't remember anything. And people stared at me strangely.---" he put his finger over her lips.

"You talk too much." he smirked and she gave a childish smile. After the wound was tended to, he thanked her and she looked to Kagome.

"I'm sorry about your kimino. I'll fix it up again, I promise."

Kagome laughed, "Don't worry about it, since I've had Izayoi, I can't fit it anyway."

Speaking of the baby, Izayoi began to stir and give out a tiny cry. Kagome grabbed the girl out of her cradle and brought it to the others, "I'm afraid you both have not met her officially." she smiled down to the baby and uncovered her head some, revealing little white dog ears and black hair.

Rin giggled, "She looks equally like both of you."

Sesshoumaru smirked and looked down at the babe. Izayoi's eyes opened, golden and slitted just like him and his brother's. Izayoi looked up to Sesshoumaru and held out her tiny clawed hands and giggled at him.

Kagome held her up to Sesshoumaru's hands and he looked uncertain to take the baby.

They didn't even realize Inuyasha came in the door till he made the comment, "Go ahead, Sesshoumaru. She doesn't bite yet."

Sesshoumaru looked to his brother knowingly and took the baby in his arms, cradling it gently.

Kagome smiled as Inuyasha sat next to her, watching Izayoi and her uncle share their first moments.

In a way, it was as if Inuyasha wanted to beat Sesshoumaru in the head for all the years they've fought but as he watched him and Izayoi, everything that ever happened between the two of them flushed away with the water of the rivers. He didn't mind at all his brother's presence. It was better than a few others he's known in his life.

Rin was quiet as she watched them. Inuyasha knew. He smelt their merging of the blood and nodded to her as she turned to him and Kagome, "Welcome to the family, hope you don't mind our fangs."

Rin was a bit shaken at first and then smiled, "Don't worry, I have no worries, I have a set of my own." she said proudly and smirked higher, showing her shrunken canines off.

Kagome giggled, "Yea, feels weird for a while, you get used to them though." she smiled back, showing hers.

Rin smiled, "I'm glad Izayoi looks like both of you. Ears and all. Makes for a beautiful woman one day."

Inuyasha got a bit ruffled, "Hey! The only thing that will be more beautiful than her is my foot kicking the worthless boys' asses if they ever so think to get away with anything when it comes to her!"

Rin and Kagome exchanged glances and then busted out laughing. Sango and Kohaku shrugged and left, knowing the humor that Inuyasha was already protective of the virtues of his daughter.

Sesshoumaru was too busy cooing Izayoi and she was too busy holding his finger to notice the humor in the situation. Course, Sesshoumaru smiled a bit at the thought.

Perhaps, Rin would become pregnant and bear him a child of equilivant beauty as Izayoi…probably more, but he wasn't going to say anything.

Izayoi was a beauty, a rare gift of this world. Her ears would set her apart from the world, but her heart and soul would give back what her appearance took away, as it did for Inuyasha. He just knew she'd survive. She had the proudest dad and uncle in the lands, most powerful too, no doubt she'd be a prowess as she grew older.

A mystic youngster with a demon of a father and a priestess of a mother, who knew such could happen. Who knew such beauty and love could exist?

He did, deep down. But he'd never reveal that he knew all this time to anyone. Maybe Rin. But that's it.

Izayoi hiccupped and gently closed her eyes as she laid in his arms, bringing him out of his ponder. He watched her drift to sleep as he gently ran his hand over her head, careful of her delicate ears.

He blessed her life with the vow that he'd protect her as well as he could, and everyone else in the clan. He'd die before the others would if he could. But, Rin's life would end as well.

She would give her life for the others, but he'd die as well.

Mirrored thoughts were understood and they smiled at each other. So this is what Inuyasha and Kagome both had experienced.

They knew what their life would be like, what circumstances. And by watching them, Sesshoumaru and Rin understood as well.

If time couldn't even keep them apart, who's to say anything else would?

----

Booyah! Ok, the time thing was short, sorry…but I'm tired…my head hurts, my stomach hurts, and I have a sinus infection…maybe I can someday make it up to you though…so... LAY OFF! Yay…I love you guys!

:-D Reviews please