Chapter 1: Captured, Deja vu

The tall woman rubbed her head, in an effort to soothe her nerves. She was a delicate woman and had never in her life been deprived of anything she wanted, not that she was spoiled. I was living in a true paradise, one that I didn't appreciate as I should have, she thought back as she looked at all the mishaps, what had happened over the course of only ten years time. Being kicked out of an apartment, because of her deteriorating income was one such instance. She had never known emotional or physical trauma which made her susceptible to it in this world of so much drama.

She was about to stand up and walk to the nearest unemployment office when a pigeon waddled towards her as she was sitting on the cement curb. Not wanting to deceive the bird, she opened her hands, an action that said she had no food, but instead of flying away, it started to make loud shrieking sounds, flapping its wings.

The woman could not move and was frozen in place, heart beating wildly as she felt slight pressure on all parts of her body. Alarmed, she took this as a sign- an actual miracle. An innumerable amount of pigeons not only surrounded her, but had landed on her head, her lap, anywhere where there was perching space. Not wanting to frighten the birds she tried to be as still and calm as she could.

This was a sure blessing from above. She still had a gift with flying animals, for she was a bird angel. She reveled in her delight with a newfound happiness, hope coursing through her veins.

The man across the street looking through the window of a small coffee shop blinked…again and …again. Kami help him! Was he seeing what he really was seeing? Or was it is overworked mind conjuring up hallucinations? In any matter, he was about to find out as he paid the bill and brusquely exited the shop.

The lady tensed as she sensed an approaching threat to the birds emerging from the café across the street. She hesitated. Should she get up to run away, but the man could still be headed in another direction…, but there was no mistaking the piercing molten eyes that focused themselves directly on her.

Was the woman going to move?

"It's okay! Don't move!" He shouted when he noticed her eyes deciding whether to bolt or stay, not expecting the tumultuous crowd of pigeons to take flight heading in his direction.

"What are-" He kicked off another pigeon on his knee. "you birds-" He groaned in frustration, when another one started pecking his forehead and sighed in resignation, giving up on finishing his sentence and ran at the woman.

That was when she, seeing danger running towards her in an expensive Armani suit, bolted, and turned a sharp corner into an alleyway. Her steps kept their pace, but she stopped at the end of the alley, face sculpted in horror. Her children, hardly recognizable, and so much older standing right there. She could feel it was them…Oh thank the Prince!

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Kagome and Rin woke to the sounds of a woman screaming for joy and shaking them awake. The woman's clothes were that of poor material and looked like odds and ends from a thrift store, but the woman's physical appearance startled them both, looking into the face of a concerned, but stunningly beautiful woman.

"My daughters!" She exclaimed, so happily gifting them with a brief and relieved smile.

The sisters exchanged looks asking the other if they knew her. The blank looks on their faces came up with nothing, but as soon as the woman hugged them, an almost electric shock seemed to jolt their bodies as the little gears started turning in their memory.

"AAAAAhhhh!" Their mother screamed.

Instantly, a faint remembrance of the woman slapped them in the faces, and they rushed to help her from a silver-haired man who was dragging her away from them.

Unfortunately, the strength of a weak woman combined with two teenagers, could not compare with a full grown inuyoukai and there was a struggle for a few moments before the man carried her away running at an amazing speed.

And with that, one of their clues to who they were came by and passed them in a blur and the feeling when you know something but cannot access it, irritated them further.

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The first time he had even talked to her was at a school dance. She had a certain attraction about her that drew people to her (he supposed that was how popularity worked), and that was how he found her standing in the middle of a small crowd at the opposite end of the room, where he was.

Music was blaring through large speakers, his ears twitching at every loud pitch. He was not used to the volume and the fast, unstructured dancing. A few teachers eyed him, curiously. Sesshoumaru Takashiro. At a dance?

He took a step forward and stopped to reevaluate his thoughts. Did he really want to do this? Before him, the images of his father and brother appeared. Don't be manipulated by him again, a female voice reassured him, but he blocked it out. His pride would be damaged. He confidently walked the dance floor to his destination.

"Kagura." He tapped her on the shoulder firmly.

She turned around from her group and as she laid her eyes on him, she cooed. "The great Sesshoumaru-sama, is talking to me?" A few of her friends let out some suggestive whistles, which he ignored.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't usually talk to scum." Inside he knocked himself silly. One part of him told him he loathed her but another part of him reminded himself he had a job to do.

She sent him a look, and shook her head as if thinking he was incompetent. "Come on."

He followed without any protest into the empty and blindingly bright hallways.

She stood expectantly, with her arms across her chest. "So?"

"Girlfriend?" He held out his hand to form a handshake with her. The exchange had to be short. He had important things to do. Any task in the world was more important than this.

Her tinkling laughter filled the hallways echoing throughout. "You'll have to talk in complete sentences Seshoumaru."

"You know what I mean." He said impatiently. "This is already a demeaning act for me. Do not make me ask again." He warned her.

She snorted. "I'm demeaning?" Her attack stopped as she looked into the hard eyes of the untouchable prodigy of the school and sent her into a dream mode. "If my friends could see me now… Sesshoumaru Takahashi asking-no, begging me to be his girlfriend…" But her reverie stopped as soon as it had started, snapping her back to reality.

Instead of the handshake he was expecting, she slapped his hand. "As if!"

The immediate refusal surprised him and his hand did not move from its midair position as he tried to push away his anger.

"At least let me get to know you." He struggled with the words, words he had never said before, but it had its effect. She stopped mid-step, face although hidden, was a smile so wide and her whole face brightened and dared not to turn around if this was really a prank or trick.

She tried to sound casual as she answered. "I guess."

There were a few seconds of total silence and deciding to break it, she turned around, frowning deeply when she realized he had disappeared.

Sesshoumaru groaned remembering that day. It had been all because of what had transpired earlier with him, his father and his idiotic brother that got him saddled with…her.

"Do you want a good marriage?" His father bellowed. "Before I met your mother I was married to a good for nothing woman!"

In the corner of his eye he watched Inuyasha's reaction to the hurtful words towards his own mother, but he only nodded dutifully along with his father. Sesshoumaru thought he saw a flinch though.

"She stole my money and-" His father recounted any wrong the poor woman did in her life and even raised eyebrows to highly exaggerated accounts.

The onslaught of horrible things that his own father accused of his brother's mother was too much. He could feel the heated anger that emanated from Inuyasha that could probably burn a hole large enough through his father turning him into a pile of ashes. But because of his half-brother's incapability of dealing with the accusations, he heard him walk out of the room and mutter, "I'm out."

Sesshoumaru smirked, when his brother stormed out.

"Sesshoumaru, are you even listening?" His father interjected, becoming an erupting volcano when he gave no reply.

After, he had walked through the hallways, gliding, through years of memories in paintings and stopped and entered his mother's room, not bothering to knock. His mother did not care for propriety when it came to her son.

"You doing okay, Sesshy?" Her shaky tone was that of an old woman, not a woman in her prime.

He respected his elders and took orders straight away, but he raised an eyebrow at his nickname which had not been said aloud in ten years. "Fine," he replied nonchalantly.

"You don't always have to listen to your father," she paused, "I heard the yelling from this room. Don't be manipulated by him again. You know it hurts me so much to see you act as a ghost, trying to follow in his footsteps knowing most that he tells you is meaningless."

His mother had a withered look around her. She was once beautiful and healthy, a vine, or ivy. She needed constant support around her, something to climb on and build on and the more time she spent in this house, the more sickly she became. He was her only support, in a broken family.

On the other hand, his half-brother's mother was the opposite. She was an exotic flower, durable through any changes and adaptable to any situation. She was free. He had seen her recently at a diner getting dumped by a boyfriend, her spirit, was indeed one that was hard to crush and irrepressible. Albeit, she was a bit more brazen than was necessary.

Thinking again, she inquired, "What happened?"

He summarized the whole conversation. "Father started complaining about Izayoi again. Inuyasha had to control his temper and father is making me start to plan for the future- a future with a woman I intensely dislike,"

The birds chirped, filling the empty conversation until his mother suddenly spoke.

"Your father never loved me." She gazed out the window for a moment and she touched his hand lightly. Her pale complexion grew even more and the rest of her words were sadly put. "Even now, I can't believe he's still in love with her…" Her tone changed completely to paranoia. "How has he been sneaking her in?" Her eyes darted as if believing she might be in this very room eavesdropping.

"You are overreacting. She is not here." Sesshoumaru confirmed this by opening the closet door wide, and closing it. "See? Nothing."

His mother screamed. "She's in here! Somewhere!" Her frantic hand gestures scared him.

The only thing he could do was pat her back, while she sobbed. "Whenever he says horrible things about Izayoi is when he's trying to convince the rest of us that he really isn't in love with her and doesn't give a damn, but he tries too hard. The way he has to work on the words to come out of his mouth, and the way he says it as if he memorized a whole speech gives everything away."

Indeed, Sesshoumaru had seen these slight nuances and more. The way he had clutched anything that was nearby, the way his eyes grew dull as he said more. He didn't want his mother to live such a life with his father. He would take her away, someday, when he was truly ready to defeat even his father.

Her breathing became slower and before he turned out the light her eyes closed and her mouth opened to finish their conversation. "But the worst thing is that it hurts me more that he doesn't even tell us about her, to make up this junk as if he were in a play, acting for a tough audience."

She yawned widely. "She was a nice person though." He assumed she was talking about Izayoi.

"Yah know?" She whispered drifting off into sleep.

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"What were you thinking?" Inuyasha yelled at his brother, who was staring at the ceiling begging kami to stop the noise, trying to remember where the earplugs were kept. "You don't leave two little girls to fend for themselves, you should have helped them."

"Why don't you do anything about it?" was his brother's reply. "I'm sure you could find them again. Take the car, and make a right and…-wait. I'm sure I can print up a map." He decided and printed one out.

After he had finished, he came back and found Inuyasha smiling.

"You wanted to save them. I know it. You had it all thought out. Mention it to me and I'd do the rescuing, so you don't lose your pride. I get it now. You have one twisted mind. You thought it out, saving them and all, and you walked away. You do have a conscience," Inuyasha conceded.

"I had no intention of saving them, I happen to have a very good memory."

Inuyasha nodded his head. Riiiighht….

"I do!"

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Prince Arion circled overtop the strange tall buildings, eyes searching intently for his prey. There! He spotted them, the two girls cornered in an alleyway, by… a man? With white hair? The Prince squinted so his eyes could focus on the faraway images. He gasped almost dropping from the air, when he looked closely at the man. He thought the last of their kind had disappeared without a trace, but they seemed to have reproduced on Earth. Maybe this was the only creature of that race….but somehow he just didn't think so.

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They hid deeper into the piles of boxes around them hearing a distinct sound.

"Ow!" He had stubbed his foot on something sharp. This was followed with a string of curses.

Kagome noticed her sister's head popping out of the box, straining for a look at the stranger and Kagome knew what she was thinking. Was it that man from yesterday? The one who had walked away? Had he come back? Kagome concentrated on being hidden and pushed the questions away. "Keep your head down," she ordered.

Rin curled up into the bottom of the box.

The echoes of passing cars, did not mask the sound of shoes scuffing the gravel beneath them and she tried to resist the urge to even peer over the edge…but she already had.

She saw the back of a head, a head filled with bountiful white hair, but, there was something different. Her head raised a tiny bit more.

The head turned around sharply and she realized she failed to note the more bushiness of his hair, the triangular shaped ears atop his head and his shorter height. From his point of view he would be at an angle where she could see him, but he couldn't see her, but somehow she became a bit nervous when his eyes narrowed and the ears twitched in her direction.

She ducked back into her box.

He swiftly moved towards the edge of her box and touched it whiles the girl inside, tried to quell the loud breaths that escaped her. Not knowing what he was thinking, she squeezed her eyes shut, wishing it would all just go away.

"Wow, this box was made in Taiwan," he said amazedly. "and we're in Japan…" His genius observation was not for naught. A few hours ago the boxes were different. A few hours ago, Arion had swooped down to this very place with thoughts of Taiwan fresh in his mind. He simply had touched the boxes and they had all changed without his command. His powers were uncontrollable and that was why he was revered in the heavens as a god. After all, who could say their powers were so strong they were uncontrollable?

Kagome now knew for sure he was as dumb as a rock. It's called importing…, she answered silently. She stood stock still, but not in fear. It was in shock. She thought, What kind of person says that? Her tensed muscles relaxed, reassured with the fact he knew she was not there.

But then, it was all too soon to even think about their imminent safety, when the sounds of her sister scuffling around in her box reached even her ears, switching her thoughts to their imminent capture.

Inuyasha hurriedly picked up the two boxes in front of him.

They both screamed.

"Get away!"

Rin stood up in the box and jumped down, only to be captured by Inuyasha's arm and Kagome jumped out of the box to help Rin. Both boxes dropped, each of his arms snatched them and she fought her way for Rin.

A little while later, they were both thrown into the backseat and the screech of tires filled the air.

As the man had captured the bird woman, Inuyasha had captured two frightened girls.

Like father, like son.