Notes:

Timing:

Inuyasha: begins just after the Hyakki Bats arc and goes AU.

TT: set post-series, at least four years after season 4.

Disclaimer: Oh, for the love of……….NO! I do not own Inuyasha or Teen Titans, being a firm believer in liberty, equality and the fact that all animes, cartoons, novels and movies are real in some alternate dimension. This applies to this entire FANfiction. Don't bug me, jeez. I've lost my temper, and I am not looking.

Unexpected Alliances

Prologue: Destiny.

Jinx clambered up the grassy slope of the woods outside Jump City, panting with exertion and adrenaline. Her pack, filled with everything she would need, weighed down her right shoulder. She cast a glance at the hilltop and then the glowing display on her watch. Thirty minutes, and three kilometres to go before she began losing time. Time, she thought wryly. She started the focusing chant she used, gathering the summoning power. She hadn't used those powers in years, afraid of the results. Even in her worst trouble with Madame Rouge or the Hive, she had suppressed her instincts and contented herself with her hexes. The consequences of not controlling them were simply too great.

Then, ten days ago, she had finally tracked down the document she'd been seeking for years. Now, she couldn't care less what powers she used.

She had hoped that the torment would end with Raven's eighteenth birthday that she would unravel into the peaceful void she had been so cruelly yanked out of, but the Titans had succeeded in banishing Trigon, and she had awakened from the spell knowing that she would now be the instrument of the demon's ascension.

If I stop him in the past………I stop him here. As she sprinted into the clearing, with its marvellous view of Jump City and Titans Tower, cast in silver and black, her watch showed 11:34. She dropped the pack and called her power forth, letting it outline her in bright pink as she drew the circle on the ground. She picked up the laminated sheet of paper in her bag and copied the elaborate symbol on the front within the circle. As her hand drew the symbol, guided by her power, the lines she drew in the dirt began to glow white. When she finished the symbol, she was standing in the middle of the circle, surrounded by protection charms and the spell itself. She felt her feet leave the ground, her eyes closing, her bright hair flying as her darker powers came alive around her. A screaming sound filled her ears as Time itself unwound, shattered, frayed and rebuilt itself around her. Dimly, she was aware of the watch breaking apart from the stress the spell placed on her. When the sound died away into a whisper, she opened her eyes, and felt a moment of satisfaction that the spell – almost the first of the kind she had ever cast – had worked perfectly.

She was standing in the shadow of a cluster of tall trees. Tall deciduous trees, not the conifer of Jump City. The air was fresh, clean……far cleaner than any air was in 2010 that was for certain. It was morning, and it had been midnight when she cast the spell. A child squealed in pleasure, running through a meadow filled with wildflowers that certainly didn't belong in Jump City either. That wasn't what convinced her, though.

The inuyoukai standing in front of her, a faint trace of surprise on his otherwise immobile features, that was the clincher. Long silvery white hair…….check; amber slit eyes……check; cheek stripes and crescent moon ……..check; white robes……..check.

Jinx looked again at the sheet in her hands, at the drawing in it, double-checking before she said, 'Sesshoumaru?'

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If she expected any sort of reaction, she was sorely disappointed. Other than a minute twitch of an eyebrow, the only sign that he even acknowledged her presence was the low growl that vibrated in his chest. With her keen hearing, she could just barely hear it. She tried again.

'Are you Sesshoumaru?'

'Do not refer to this Sesshoumaru by his name, impudent child!' he said…….no, growled. Oh, yeah, Jinx thought to herself. Definitely inuyoukai. Strangely, he made no move towards her, though she was certain he was itching to disembowel her.

'I apologise,' she said quickly. No sense in alienating the guy before she could tell him anything. 'This is the only name that I know. My name is Jinx.'

'And why should that interest me?' he said, half turning away.

All right. You want to play hard to get? Get this. 'I come from the future…….nearly five hundred years in the future. And I have a warning for you.'

Eyebrow twitch. Face half-turning back to her. A loud sniff. Well, at least he was paying attention. 'There's a demon in my time. An interdimensional demon called Trigon, quite possibly the most powerful demon ever to exist. To cut a long story short, some……. acquaintances of mine banished Trigon a few years ago. They didn't manage to kill his spirit, though she…..they……did a good job on his body. I found a document some days ago that suggested that he came into the past, into this time, to capture a body strong enough to contain his……….it said that he took yours. With your body and his power, he laid waste to the world……and to others.'

'Impossible,' he corrected her sharply. Was it her imagination, or did he just sniff her again? Or the air around her? Why did he keep doing that? 'I cannot be possessed by a youkai – I have never met one strong enough to do that.'

'Trigon succeeded,' she countered. 'I know this for a fact. I can show you.'

She stepped towards him, intending to show him the prophecy. She was a little surprised when he drew his sword. 'Come no closer, spirit,' he warned.

'Spirit?' she said. Was the translation spell malfunctioning? 'I'm not a ghost!'

'You have no smell, human,' he said. 'The stink of your kind does not stain the air around you. Are you so foolish that you do not know that you are dead?'

'I'm – not – dead!' she gritted. 'I'm a projection!' Stink? Stain? That was offensive. Calling her dead – and too stupid to know it – was even worse. If her life hadn't been on the line, he'd have been a puddle of pink hexed-youkai by now. Still………she stepped right up to Sesshoumaru, ignoring personal space and common courtesy, and shoved the prophecy in his face. 'Read that, dumbass,' she snarled. He took it in one hand – in his only hand. The prophecy came alive as he looked, mesmerised, at the paper. She heard the words of the prophecy again in her mind, in the voice of the one who had made it. There were some phrases and sentences there that she simply didn't understand, but they seemed to make sense to him. Proof of identity? Perhaps……there's more magic there than I can sense, that's for sure. When he finished, the prophecy disintegrated. 'He left me two copies. One for me, one for you.'

'That……..' he said, sounding shaken. 'That is my handwriting. That is my voice.'

'Yes,' she confirmed. 'Your voice, your hand…….but controlled by Trigon. He sent me the prophecy years ago, as a challenge, but it was…….intercepted……by others, and held from me.' Her hand flexed as Brother Blood's pasty face flashed before her eyes. 'I found it yesterday. I have only a few days left. And so…….'

She drew a deep breath. Now or never. 'I'm offering you a trade.'

Eyebrow twitch again, but no other reaction. Was he trying to annoy her to death? 'Come back to the future with me. Trigon won't find a body powerful enough to support him if you aren't here. Help me destroy him.'

'You said a trade,' he said. 'What have you to offer me in return?'

'I thought that was obvious,' Jinx said, shaking her hair out. 'Your life. If you're in the future, Trigon won't have a body capable of sustaining him.' His eyes flashed, and she felt a chill run through her. Maybe it wasn't the wisest thing to be so catty around him. Sure, she couldn't be harmed in this form, but there were no guarantees once they were back in Jump City. Even Trigon's protection only went so far.

'Done,' he said finally, coldly. 'On one condition.' A thumb jerked at the little girl playing in the field. 'Rin!' he called, his inflection never changing. The girl trotted over to him and caught a lock of his hair, toying with it, looking up at him questioningly. Sesshoumaru looked down at her for a second, eyes unreadable. Then he looked back up at Jinx. 'She comes with me.'

'Done,' Jinx said immediately. Changing the timeline was an acceptable risk. Unless the Titans were affected, it wouldn't matter in the long run when placed against Trigon's ascension. She extended a gloved hand to him and another to Rin, but the youkai took both Rin's hands in his one hand, not allowing her to touch the girl. Jinx shrugged; if the youkai felt protective, that took him up a few notches in her esteem. It also meant he was smart, not to trust anyone. Jinx stepped back into the circle, becoming corporeal again, and took his arm instead. The symbol glowed, and Time fractured, different in some indefinable way but the same still. She double-checked that both of them were with her as the spell unwound. Sesshoumaru was examining the symbol, detached interest the only thing he permitted his body to convey. The girl was clinging to the youkai's hands, eyes wide but trusting. Briefly, Jinx wondered what he had done to deserve it.

Then the spell completed itself, dropping them back in Jump City. Jinx sighed in relief as she spied the familiar bold T-shaped building in the lightening morning sky. Her two passengers were looking around them as well. She stepped out of the now-dark circle, drawing them with her, bone-tired as the adrenaline faded. She leaned against a large rock, some part of her registering that Rin was flopping down beside her.

And then she cursed as Rin slipped right through the rock. Not slipped, exactly. More like became insubstantial and sank slowly down through it.

Sesshoumaru noticed too, obviously, and his eyes narrowed. Without moving any other muscle, he seemed suddenly ready to wreak havoc on the known universe.

'Explain,' he rumbled in a chilling whisper, his hand on his sword. Just one word, but Jinx suddenly knew why Trigon wanted this one.

'Oh, shit,' she mumbled.

'I'd gotten that far on my own, miserable human!' he roared. 'What have you done?'

'I…..' she stumbled over her words. 'I've left your physical bodies behind. I didn't have enough power to bring your bodies here with your spirits. You're only substantial to me.'

He took a step towards her, and she retreated, everything spinning crazily around her as she fought for consciousness. The spell had taken much more out of her than she thought. 'You're not dead or anything back there!' she said hastily. 'Just……..comatose. You can be brought here fully, both of you! I know how. I just don't have the strength needed for that.'

She looked at Titans' Tower, which seemed to be silently telling her off. 'And I know someone who does. We need to go…….there…..'

She was fairly certain she pointed at the lighthouse before she fainted.

Chapter One: Dawn visitors

Early mornings weren't Cyborg's time, not really. None of the Titans were cheery in the morning……except for Starfire, who was the soul of lightness and bounce at any hour. Robin could be counted upon to growl at anyone who made him use more than three syllables in a row, Raven never spoke until she'd finished her morning routine and Beast Boy never troubled to drag himself out of bed before ten unless they were on the job. On the rare occasions when Cyborg woke before the others, he liked to make himself a stack of waffles and retreat to the garage with the outer door open and tinker with the T-Car or read a magazine. It was nice like that, alone in the cool morning breeze. Peaceful.

Just as the word peaceful flashed through his mind, the universe restored its original Cyborg-hating policy. The perimeter alarm began to clang loudly. The waffles leaped off the plate in a graceful arc, and would have squashed on the ground if Cyborg's reflexes hadn't been so good. The cameras turned on automatically, and he goggled at the bizarre group approaching the front door of Titans' Tower. One was a tall guy dressed in some weird sort of dress – Japanese, he presumed, though the style was one he didn't recognise, with long flowing white hair and two swords at his hip. A spiky breastplate, and as the camera zoomed in on his face, Cyborg saw crimson stripes, pointed ears and catlike amber eyes. A crescent moon curved on his forehead. The energy readings off this one were off the charts, heart rate almost twice that of a human, but his body heat was more or less normal. One hand was holding the hand of…….what looked like a very normal little girl, some eight or nine years old. She was saying something excitedly, brimming with delight as she looked at him, at the flowers on the island, at the giant building they were approaching. The man was also supporting someone who was slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Wait a minute. Lavender hair, ponytails. Cyborg knew that hair; he'd stared at it long enough during his time at the HIVE for it to be permanently branded into his memory.

'……..Jinx?' he said, and promptly dropped the waffles.

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Raven came to a stop in front of the doors, slightly to the side of the rest of the Titans. Cyborg was goggling at Jinx, Robin was tense, anticipating a fight of some sort, Starfire looked torn between making friends and waiting to see if they were enemies, Beast Boy looked half-asleep – in fact, he was wearing a sock on his hand. Raven took this in in a single glance before the youki radiating from the man overwhelmed her.

As a half-demon, Raven knew that others somewhat like her did exist; that demons had lived in the past, had populated large areas of the world. They weren't the same creatures she was, not exactly; they were youkai, spirits, to be precise, represented by different animals. However, to the best of everyone's knowledge, they had died out or emigrated to other worlds in the last three centuries, and there was – count 'em – one being with demonic blood on Earth at the moment. Raven herself.

This man was definitely a youkai, though. His markings were unfamiliar, but the features were enough to mark him as nonhuman.

As she watched, he shrugged a shoulder, depositing Jinx in an untidy heap on the hard ground, and said something to them in Japanese.

Robin replied in the same tongue, speaking as fluently as the youkai had. She was surprised, then surprised that she was surprised. Of course Robin would know Japanese. He always knew what he needed to. He exchanged a flurry of words with the youkai, and then turned to the others.

'He says his name is Sesshoumaru. He's the Lord of the Western Lands, whatever that means. Jinx brought him here…..'

'Where is he from?' Raven interrupted him. The demon's – Sesshoumaru's – eyes flickered towards her briefly, and she could sense him reading her aura. Half human, half youkai with wards and magic from another dimension – if this youkai was a native of this planet, no wonder he looked a little puzzled by her aura.

She summoned her magic and cast a simple translation spell. Suddenly, what the youkai was saying made sense.

'……….to the lighthouse before she fainted. She said that one here had the power to complete the spell. The hanyou.' And here he gestured to Raven.

A flare of hot anger shot through her, and she quickly clamped down on the emotion. Though her emotions were less inclined to go crazy and blow things up after her battle with Trigon, she still kept herself under careful control. She didn't have to blow up a building to kill people; an accidental short-circuit could do the job as well. Hanyou? Who does he think he is? Memories of her early years in Azarath threatened to enter her mind, and she pushed them out before they could parade in front of her.

Robin turned to the others, looking skeptical. 'He says he's from the past. Jinx brought him here………..he says Trigon is still alive.'

The statement rippled through the Titans. 'No way, dude!' Beast Boy said incredulously. 'Raven totally fried him! We saw it!'

'It's possible,' Raven said, masking her emotions in her monotone voice. 'Trigon's body died, true, but I've never been sure that I erased his spirit. I only said he was dead because his link with me snapped. There's no way to tell for certain.'

'You mean…….he could be out there this minute,' Robin said softly. 'But he doesn't have a body. And he can't get here without a portal, right?'

Behind Sesshoumaru, Jinx hauled herself upright. The youkai stepped away from her, and as she stood shakily Cyborg quickly supported her. 'He has a portal,' she said weakly. 'I'm the portal. And if we don't finish the spell quickly, he'll have a body as well.'

Decision made, Raven acted, floating over to Cyborg and Jinx and taking the sorceress' arm in a death grip. 'All right,' she said evenly. 'Let's go inside and discuss this some more.'

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'So, this prophecy,' Robin began tentatively. They were seated on the sofa in the living room, Jinx the centre of attention. Sesshoumaru was standing stiffly to the side, taking no apparent interest in the conversation – even though he could now understand them, thanks to another of Jinx's spells. Rin wandered through the room, poking at things and looking disappointed when her fingers passed through. Raven floated next to Jinx. She looked as impassive as ever, but Robin had learned to read her over the years, and she positively radiated anger. Sure, she didn't really like Jinx – okay, she really didn't like Jinx – but the anger was directed at the demon, too, and he didn't understand why.

'It says that the youkai guy – ' they'd all stayed away from referring to him by name after the first time he snapped at them – 'gets taken over by Trigon, and then he goes to his dimension, wherever it is. Then he recreates his own body, discards his temporary body and re-enters the mortal plane, using Jinx as his portal. Or at least, that's what the prophecy says.'

Jinx nodded. She sat limply on the sofa, feeling a little restored after three tall glasses of water and an aspirin.

'So. Give us a reason to believe you.'

She really didn't have time for this. 'Raven, do you believe me?' she said directly, staring the violet-haired girl in the eyes.

Slowly, reluctantly, she nodded. 'You have the feel of……of Trigon's magic about you,' she admitted. 'Now that I know what it is, it's obvious.'

That seemed to do it for the rest of the Titans. Beast Boy and Cyborg relaxed an infinitesimal inch, and even Robin looked a little less unhappy. Until Jinx spoke again.

'Good. You're the only one I'm interested in.'

Cyborg looked a little hurt by that.

'If you can complete the spell for me, I'll be on my way. I apologise,' and Jinx looked almost nauseous for saying that – 'for any inconvenience this may cause. Just consider the alternative.' She felt dizzy and leaned back against the soft plush of the sofa gratefully. The world went black as the sleep she had been holding back took over with a vengeance.

'She's fainted!' Cyborg said, alarmed, rushing over to her. He laid a hand on her throat, felt her temperature. 'I…..I don't understand. Her skin's ice-cold. And she barely has a pulse. But she was talking to us a moment ago……'

'A healing trance,' Raven interrupted. 'Something like mine, I guess. Take her to the examining room and give her some privacy. She should be fine in a couple of days.'

Cyborg nodded and obediently scooped her up.

'Sesshoumaru,' Raven said. 'Give me some time with my books. I'll see what I can do.'

Chapter Two: Ticketless passengers.

Meanwhile, in Sengoku Jidai, a small group of travellers in search of Shikon shards had found the bodies of Sesshoumaru and Rin.

'Oi, rat-face,' Inuyasha said, prodding his half-brother with a curious foot, much harder than necessary. 'Taking a nap or something?'

'What's wrong with him, Inuyasha?' Kagome asked.

'I don't sense any life force in him. It's as if he's soulless, but he's breathing and his heart's beating. The girl's, too. I don't understand.'

'This is strange,' Miroku said to Sango, hand on chin. 'I've always thought Sesshoumaru was stronger than soul-stealer demons. Why would he be like this?'

'Oi!' Inuyasha said again, kicking Sesshoumaru on the shin, which earned him no reaction except an annoyed 'Sit boy!' from Kagome. He yelped and crashed to the ground next to the demon.

'JERK!' He roared through a mouthful of dirt.

'I don't know of any youkai that would do this,' Sango admitted, sidestepping the falling Inuyasha with easy practice, and coming from the taijiya, that statement meant a lot. 'It's something entirely new.'

'Well, that's it then,' said Inuyasha, picking himself off the ground.

'What is that supposed to mean?' Kagome asked him indignantly.

'Well, you obviously don't sense any Shikon shards, so let's move on.'

'We can't just leave them there!' Shippou said.

'No,' Inuyasha said, an evil light in his eyes. 'I think I'll have a bit of fun before that. Pants him, maybe?' he moved to Sesshoumaru's side, hands flexing.

Kagome sighed. 'Just think; in a few years, my baby'll be in kindergarten.' She was just opening her mouth to sit him to the centre of the earth…….

When the sky split apart in a swirling dark vortex of energy, silver-blue lightning flashing within it, and a giant black raven's claw, crackling with dark power, reached down and swept up the two motionless bodies.

Unfortunately, it swept up the others, too. Only Shippou and Kirara were left behind, staring comically up at the sky.

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Raven jerked, startled, as the weight she had been expecting more than tripled. What the………but it was too late, and her claw snapped back through the time. As she solidified from her soul form, a large group of people tumbled out through the portal behind her.

Her eyes snapped back to Sesshoumaru and Rin. Their spirit-forms were drawn, almost magnetically, to their bodies. As the two merged, a blinding lightning-flash filled the room. When she could see again, Rin was squealing with glee at being able to finally touch the sofa in the living room. Sesshoumaru was flexing his hand, looking mildly pleased. Hn, Raven thought. He's almost as good as repressing emotion as I am.

'Not bad, hanyou,' he told her.

'Don't call me that,' she said in an emotionless voice that nonetheless had the Titans moving away from her nervously.

Then he lifted his head, sniffing, and before she could wonder why he was doing that, his fists clenched. 'Pathetic hanyou,' he snarled, unsheathing his sword, and before Raven could blast him to kingdom come for saying it again, she saw that he wasn't addressing her.

Her attention turned to the others who'd come through the portal.

The first was a woman in some sort of catsuit with armour; the second a man in some sort of religious robe. The third was a girl in a school uniform, and this, in that company, made Raven's eyebrows hit the ceiling. The last was a long white-haired boy in red robes……..and were those dog ears on his head? That was strange even by Raven's standards. As he lifted his face, groaning, 'Kagome? This looks like…..' she saw his amber eyes and realised he looked like……..

'Is this guy a relative of yours, Sesshoumaru? He kind of looks like you.'

'Do not compare this Sesshoumaru to the filthy hanyou, woman!' he snarled. 'And do not presume to refer to me by name! I will be addressed as –'

'You will be addressed as whatever I damn well choose to address you as!' she snarled back, getting in his face, even if he was a foot taller. The lamp behind Sesshoumaru exploded, showering him with glass. Dark energy flamed to life around her. He didn't seem to notice. 'And the next time you call me anything other than my name, I'll blast you into another dimension! Or are you too stupid to remember it?'

Complete silence fell.

It was suddenly shattered by a snicker. Both Raven and Sesshoumaru whirled to face the man with dog ears.

'Ooh, she has you whipped, Fluffy,' he said.

'Fluffy?' Raven looked back at him. He snarled wordlessly.

'Shut up, Inuyasha,' the girl snapped. She turned to Raven and said politely, 'Where are we?'

'You spoke English!' Beast Boy said, surprised. 'Who are you?'

'My name is Higurashi Kagome. This is Sango,' indicating the woman in armour, 'And that's Miroku. I'm from Tokyo. Is this the future?'

'Ye-es,' said Robin slowly. 'How did you guess?'

'Oh, I'm from the future myself,' she chirped. 'And where in the…….' She trailed off, looking closely at them. 'Oh my God,' she said. 'You're the Titans, aren't you! I didn't recognise you for a moment. Sorry!'

'You know these people?' Inuyasha said, staring at them. They were an odd group. No one seemed to be the same colour – green, white, orange, blue and brown, and the gray girl who yelled at Sesshoumaru, she was a half-youkai of some sort.

'Of course, Inuyasha!' Kagome chattered on. 'They're famous crime fighters with superpowers!'

Despite himself, Sesshoumaru was being drawn into the conversation. Who were these people, and how did the miko know them?

And the cloaked girl had shouted at him. He would have to kill her for it, of course, but there was no harm in doing it later, when there were fewer annoyances around. Namely that sickening half-brother of his.

'Very well,' he announced. 'Come, Rin. We are leaving.' The girl came obediently to his side as he turned toward the door.

'Not so fast,' Raven said reluctantly. He looked over his shoulder, eyes boring through her. 'The spell worked fine, but your spirit isn't firmly attached to your body yet. I'm going to have to be the anchor of the spell, since I was the one who cast it. You'll need to be near this place, near me, until the spell fades completely. A week, maybe more. I'm strong, but even I can't join a soul to a body at one go.'

Sesshoumaru looked ready to burst a blood vessel. 'Are you suggesting that I stay here in the presence of this filth of a brother of mine, hanyou?'

'That's exactly what I'm saying,' said Raven in a calm voice that screamed get out of my way or be left in component molecules to everyone who knew her. 'Unless you want to die, of course. Which wouldn't exactly have me ripping my hair in grief, but oh well.' He looked like he might take her up on the offer. 'And the girl will die as well.' That subdued him, Raven noted. So he did care about her.

Robin's mind was groaning from the stress it was going through. First he learned there were more demons out there than his best friend and her daddy not-so-dearest. Then he witnessed another of Raven's time-travelling spells, which were unnerving at best. Then a whole lot of strange people had come back through the portal. And then they all seemed to know each other, and at least one of them was a time traveller in her own right, which was just weird.

Damn it, it was too late in the night for that!

'Heh. So we're in the future again?' Inuyasha didn't sound too fazed by that, though the two other humans seemed a little shell-shocked. He shrugged at Raven. 'Well, you'll just have to send us back then.'

Well, he's being respectful, Kagome mused. Then again, it's Raven he's talking to. He'd better be.

'Although,' he continued, 'it's been a good trip all around.'

Raven raised an eyebrow.

'I'd do a lot more time travelling if it meant seeing the moron being bullied by a little girl. Hah! Brought to heel rather quick, isn't he?' he snickered again.

'Filthy hanyou,' Sesshoumaru snarled, heading towards Inuyasha, who drew an impressively long sword out of a scabbard that, by all rights, shouldn't have been able to hold it at all. 'I WILL KILL YOU! HOW DARE YOU LAUGH AT –ugh!'

He had stalked right into a bubble of dark energy which held him motionless. And soundless, judging by his purpling face and working mouth. Inuyasha smirked and leaped straight at him, swinging his suddenly-red sword.

'SIT BOY!' Kagome screamed. The necklace around his throat suddenly glowed, and he crashed thunderously face down to the soft carpeting with a loud 'Gah!'

'Whoa,' Cyborg breathed in the ensuing silence. 'Talk about girl power.' He went over to the counter and began making himself pancakes. 'This should be good.'

Sesshoumaru broke free of the energy at the same moment. 'How dare you….' he began.

Raven put one palm out in a pacifying gesture. 'Please. I have no desire to see blood spilt here today. If you don't attack him until I can send them back, I will consider your debt repaid.' Her voice was formal in a way that the Titans had never heard before. Demonic etiquette? Cyborg wondered. After all, he'd never seen her talk to any youkai other than Trigon himself.

'What debt?'

'I did save your life by bringing your body here, Sesshoumaru,' she reminded him. 'You would have died in hours if I had not cast the spell. Which I was under no obligation to.'

That deflated his anger. Somewhat. He retreated into his shell.

'Very well,' he said, cool and aloof once more. 'If the worthless fool will stay away from me, I will not attack him.'

'Thank you,' Raven said, still formal. She turned to Inuyasha, who was still chewing carpet. Then she reconsidered and asked Kagome, reverting to her normal speech, 'Will you keep him away from Sesshoumaru?'

'Oi! I'm right here, you know!'

'Of course I will,' Kagome said brightly, blithely ignoring Inuyasha's annoyed words.

'That should do it.' The two shared a smile, though Raven's was only a twitch of her lip.

'Wench,' Inuyasha grumbled. Sesshoumaru smirked.

'Sit boy,' he drawled mockingly. Inuyasha made to get up from the floor, caught Kagome's eye and wisely reconsidered.

'Where do you come from; what is your favorite color; do you wish to be my friend?'

Well, that was Starfire's routine. Robin uncrossed his eyes to see her cheerfully addressing the other man, Miroku, who was looking from one to another rather confusedly. Robin knew just how he felt.

'Star, he can't understand you,' Raven said. 'The spell Jinx cast only works one way unless you've youkai blood.'

Kagome translated, and Miroku smiled and said, 'Feudal Japan, purple, and it would be my pleasure.'

Starfire grabbed him gently by the shoulders of his dark robe and gave him a smacking kiss. Miroku's arms flailed wildly for a second, and then, just as he was going to put them around her, she withdrew. In perfect Japanese, she said, 'Welcome to Jump City, Miroku.'

'What did you just do?' Sango sounded aghast.

'I kissed him,' Starfire said. 'It is how my people learn languages.' Miroku was still catching his breath. Again, Robin knew exactly how he felt. Starfire didn't really have to breathe, and when she kissed, it showed.

'I also know Mandarin Chinese and a little Sanskrit,' Miroku said hopefully.

'SHUT UP, HOUSHI-SAMA!' Miroku nursed his ear as Sango gritted her teeth and grinned apologetically at Starfire.

'So how come your Japanese is better than your English was?' Kagome said.

'Ahh………' Starfire went a brilliant shade of red. 'As I recall, I was a little……..distracted at the time, as it was the first time I had ever been required a language in that manner. It was not very effective. I find that most people I learn a language from are distracted. Robin was also very distracted. Miroku was not distracted at all.' She touched her lips thoughtfully.

The Boy Wonder was purple in the face by now, and Beast Boy rolled around on the ground giggling. Raven's mouth was twitching, and Cyborg was panting for breath.

'Aaahh,' Miroku said, drawing it out. 'I see.'

'So send us back already,' Inuyasha growled. 'You do know how, right?'

Raven raised an eloquent eyebrow. 'Of course. But………'

'But WHAT!'

'Well, there's certain times of the lunar cycle that are conducive to this sort of spell, and some that aren't. And……this would be a very wrong time to travel backwards in time.'

'What d'you mean, wrong time?'

'I mean you'd travel a certain distance backwards in time and then…….' She levitated one of Cyborg's pancakes, ignoring his cry of protest. It reached a decent height and then slammed down into the floor, smashing into tiny crumbly pieces and leaving a large wet stain on the carpet. Everyone made a face. Even Sesshoumaru looked a little sick.

'Okay,' said Kagome. 'So when can we go back then?'

Raven did a few calculations. 'Fourteen days.'

'Fourteen days…….?' the hanyou whined, and then he looked at the pancake and gulped. 'Fourteen days sounds just fine.'

'Marvellous!' Starfire said, grabbing Miroku's arm in one hand and Sango's in the other. 'Come, my friends! I shall take you to my bedroom and we can hang!'

'Heh,' said Beast Boy. 'Wonder if her Japanese is as bad as her English used to b–'

A feminine yell echoed through the hallway – from Starfire – followed by a screech of 'Hentai!' – from Sango – and a sharp cracking sound and a yelp – from Miroku.

'Now, now, Sango,' a smooth voice protested. 'I was merely….' The rest was inaudible.

'HENTAI!' Thwap!

'I'm terribly sorry,' Kagome said. 'The houshi has a bad habit of touching women's…..eh……behinds. Sango usually hits him with the boomerang when he does that; he's only really safe when he's knocked out.'

Cyborg, the only Titan with an active romantic life, turned slightly green at the thought of being hit with the seven-foot weapon every time he tried to pick up a girl.

'Woman,' Sesshoumaru said evenly to Raven. She turned to face him with her best death glare. It didn't faze him in the least. 'If you expect me to tolerate the company of these dissolute fools……….'

'The other end of the tower. Right.'

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Ultimately, most of the time travellers wound up in somebody's room. Sango and Kagome shared with Starfire, who had a huge bed and several sofas, and Robin with Miroku. Inuyasha stayed with Cyborg.

At which point they ran into problems.

Stopping dead some ten feet from the room, nose twitching madly, Sesshoumaru swept back to the living room and refused flat out to room with Beast Boy, saying that if anything at all was capable of killing him, it was the smell in there.

Inuyasha smirked and said something about how remarkable it was that Sesshoumaru had a sense of smell left since he stank so badly.

Sesshoumaru made a reply about worthless hanyous who wouldn't even notice the smell, lacking anything approaching a nose.

Several objects in the room exploded in dark energy at the phrase hanyou, thus making the living room entirely uninhabitable.

Everybody looked at Raven, the only one with a spare couch left.

Beast Boy looked at her with big pleading eyes.

Raven sighed in agreement, saying only that if Sesshoumaru were rooming with her he would have to take the consequences.

Sesshoumaru sniffed and turned away. Rin giggled, having taken a liking to Raven.

Raven kindly asked him to be silent while he stayed with her.

Sesshoumaru replied that that would be only natural, as she was hardly worth his, Sesshoumaru's, notice.

More objects flew about.

Raven began to chant quietly and fervently.

Cyborg opened a book on which one they'd find dead in the morning.

Chapter Three: Wind tunnel

Raven opened the door to her room. The inuyoukai stepped through before she could enter. He coldly surveyed the grey and black room, the sculptures, the large bed…..

'Don't even go there,' Raven said. 'The bed is mine. You get the sleeping mats. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'll ignore it immediately.'

Silence. Apparently he was serious about not speaking. Rin darted around the room, and Raven tried hard to restrain her murderous instincts. She went over to the dresser, and Raven leapt to grab her mirror away before the child could get drawn in. Rin looked cutely disappointed before running away and touching other things that probably shouldn't be. It was exactly like the time she'd had to baby-sit those kids…….there was a disaster to be averted every twenty seconds on average.

'Good night,' said Raven. 'And keep that kid under control.'

She levitated a bookshelf across the middle of the room to form a barrier of sorts. The last she saw of Sesshoumaru, he was Looking Unimpressed.

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'So you're a monk, huh,' Robin said to Miroku. 'So you…….what is it you can do?'

'Certain spiritual powers,' Miroku said dismissively. 'And I have a void in my right palm that can suck anything into it.'

'Interesting,' Robin remarked. He'd met his share of superheroes with strange powers, but a void like that sounded dangerous. 'Why do I feel there's a downside to that void?'

'Oh, there is,' Miroku said casually. Robin knew that calm; it was exactly like his own, and it was an illusion. 'It grows larger the more I use it. If I overuse it, the wind tunnel will simply grow until I'm sucked into it myself. Of course, that probably won't happen. The poison that keeps it open is going to kill me first. A few more years, and that's it. Unless I kill Naraku.'

'How old are you?'

'Twenty-two.'

'And this….Naraku. He's responsible for this void of yours?'

'Well, now, that's a long story.' Miroku settled himself better on the bed, relaxing in the comfortable dim light. Damn, these things were nice. Maybe Kagome could bring him a mattress the next time she went through the well. 'It all began with the creation of a jewel called the Shikon no Tama…..'

They talked well into the night; first Miroku, and then, tentatively, Robin spoke. By midnight, the foundation of a friendship had been laid between two very different people.

'Oh, Miroku?' Robin said just before they slept.

'Yes, Robin?'

'I like you. You're a nice sort of guy. But the next time you touch Starfire without her express permission, I'm putting you through a shredder, understand?'

Miroku swallowed.

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The next morning, Raven woke up at her usual pre-dawn hour. There was someone in her room. Why was there…..oh. That bloody youkai and the little one. He was sleeping soundly by the sound of his breathing.

Sighing, she woke up and began drifting to the bathroom. She moved the bookshelf aside noiselessly, but on the other side, Sesshoumaru was wide awake, if half dressed, sword drawn, Rin tucked securely behind him, still asleep. She had to admire his reflexes.

'Relax,' Raven said. 'I'm not going to hurt you.'

'I do not fear the likes of you,' he growled. She met it with a blank face.

'No, I didn't expect that. You haven't the brain.'

And before he could retort, she slammed the bathroom door loudly and pointedly.

When she came out, he was dressed, bed neatly rolled up. Rin was still asleep. She cast a doubtful eye over his elaborate attire, the billowing dress, the spiky breastplate and weird furry thing. 'You sure you want to wear all that?' she said.

Sesshoumaru said something unprintable.

She shrugged. 'Feel free to stow some of it away in the lockers if you want to. I'll give you the combination.'

His curiosity overcame his stiffness. 'What are these lockers you speak of?'

'Hm. I'll show you.' A moment of perversity made her phase backwards through the door, and his eyes widened ever so slightly before he controlled his expression.

Generously, she didn't snicker.

As she phased through the door, she nearly crashed into Robin, who was walking down the corridor with Sango, Miroku and Starfire. Miroku caught her in a very gentlemanly fashion. She felt his hand trail over her back.

'Try it and die.' She shot him her best death glare.

Miroku prudently withdrew his hand. Robin looked torn between sympathy and amusement, having been on the receiving end of that glare a few times himself.

Sesshoumaru slammed the door open, nearly whacking everybody with it. He shut it behind him as if he hadn't and walked calmly down the corridor beside Raven.

'That guy's just weird,' he heard the boy say quietly behind him.

'I believe he is – the words are simply freaky, yes?' he heard the girl agree.

Sesshoumaru huffed silently. As if their lowered voices wouldn't carry to his sensitive ears. As if he cared. He walked beside Raven, noting that she preferred to float rather than walk. At that level, she was nearly of a height to look him in the eye. Maybe that was why she was doing it. Stupid hanyou.

Powerful hanyou, however. He still remembered the way she had effortlessly trapped him in her energy the day before. And she could do much more than that, he was sure. From years of fighting Inuyasha, he had learned not to underestimate hanyous. That baka half-brother of his had given him his share of injuries, notably the missing arm. The girl – whose demonic heritage he had yet to identify, but which was hauntingly familiar – was probably more powerful than the baka was.

They walked into the place where she had cast the spell the night before. It had been cleaned up somewhat, and now looked a little better, though far from spotless. Actually, Ra-the girl's room had been the only really clean place in the tower.

The metalman was behind the counter, cooking. Strange sweet smells hit him like a punch in the nose. Raven, ignoring him, drifted over to the counter. As Sesshoumaru watched intently, she boiled a mug of water with a flick of her hand and tapped a few spoons of tea into it. It smelled strong and bitter but good. If he had wanted to eat, he might have asked for some. The metalman came over.

'Rae, Sesshy,' he greeted them. The inuyoukai looked up indignantly as he realised that he was Sesshy, feeling extremely put upon. 'Want some waffles?'

Raven simply Looked at him. Sesshoumaru admitted internally to being impressed by the Look. It was nearly as good as anything he could have come up with, and he was centuries older than she was even without the time travel. And a foot taller. That usually helped.

'Sesshy?' Cyborg said again. Two identical Looks were turned on him, and he retreated.

'Raven? Cyborg?' Beast Boy's green head popped through the doorway. 'Robin says training starts at seven-thirty.'

'Training?' he asked Raven.

'We have to train everyday to protect the city,' she shrugged. 'Of course, Robin's a fanatic, and he makes us do ten times the training we would.'

'I will join you,' he said. He wanted to know more about these Titans; this seemed a good opportunity.

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By the time Sesshoumaru and Raven arrived, Robin had already finished running through the obstacle course a few times, and was running a hand through his spiky hair, complaining about the lack of challenge the course offered these days. Everyone was there, except for Jinx, who was still in her trance.

'I'll take you on,' Sango offered. 'Unarmed combat, one on one.'

Robin agreed.

'This should be good,' Inuyasha chuckled. 'Shorty's going to get his butt kicked from here to Japan.'

'Is she that good?' Raven asked Sesshoumaru quietly.

'Oh, yes,' the youkai replied carelessly. 'Very good. For a human.'

'A small bet, then,' the girl said, an evil smile lurking around her mouth. 'If Robin wins, you'll lay off the "human" comments for a week. If he wins within three minutes, you call me Raven.'

'And if he loses……..'

'You get my room to yourself for a week.'

'Done,' he said instantly.

They both turned to watch the fight.

Robin and Sango circled each other. Both were wearing their work clothes, and everyone watching was struck by the similarity of their expression – this fight was hardly serious, but they were acting as if they were in deadly combat. The intensity in their gaze, dispassionate but powerful; their confidence and their watchfulness – they were identical.

Raven and Sesshoumaru watched, both more interested in the outcome than they appeared to be.

Robin threw the first punch, an exploratory jab that Sango ducked easily.

'There's the distinction between the two of them,' the youkai observed. 'She is trained to kill, and he is trained to merely injure his opponent. Should they fight, truly, she would win.' He winced as Sango's fist caught the boy full-on.

'Which is why I'm betting on Robin,' Raven replied. 'He's – oh, nice move – fighting exactly as he's trained to, while she's changing her style in order to practice. The advantage is his.'

Both fighters were quick, strikes being exchanged in a blur; both were deadly focused, and very confident. But the difference between them was clear as well. Sango's style, like Inuyasha's, did not involve kicks, while Robin used his feet to fight as naturally as he used his hands. While she could – and did – use her greater reach and upper-body strength well, Robin used his exposure to different fighting styles to confuse her, switching between one and another just when she thought she had him pegged.

At 2:45 minutes, Sango doubled over as his foot caught her in the gut, twisting past her armour. His fist shot out and slowed enough not to knock her out as he hit her jaw. Sango staggered and threw her hand up, signifying defeat.

'Sesshoumaru?' Raven said, amused.

'You win. Raven.' His face was as expressionless as ever.

She looked back at the others. Very satisfactory.

They walked slowly back to the others, Sango still looking amazed that Robin, who was a full head shorter and much thinner than she was, could have beaten her.

'Robin,' she said. He looked at her inquiringly.

'Why don't you teach me some of those moves?'

'Why not?' he said. 'If you'll teach me how to use that huge thing you were carrying yesterday.'

He smiled then, a confident curve of his lips that was devastatingly dangerous and hard to resist. Reflexively, Sango smiled back at him. There was something immediately familiar about him, in the way he fought if not the style, and in the way he moved through his environment. It reminded her strongly of Kohaku, what he could have become with time and training and confidence. For once, the memories didn't hurt.

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Miroku edged closer to Starfire as Robin and Sango fought. The Tamaranean was watching intently, and he took the opportunity to observe the scenery. She was the first girl he'd seen who wore less than Kagome did. His hand inched toward her behind. Just then, Raven caught his eye. She had no expression to read, but something in her steady gaze warned him away. He dropped his hand back to his side, and she nodded once before turning away. That girl is really weird.

She stood next to Sesshoumaru, dark blue and white, lavender and silver contrasting well. Both of them looked completely blank. As Robin and Sango finished fighting, she turned to him and said something. He replied gravely. When she looked away, the faintest hint of a smile flickered across his mouth. Miroku gaped. Was the Ice Prince displaying emotion? And to a hanyou, no less?

'All right,' Robin called. 'Who's next?'

There was a general murmur of not-me. Sesshoumaru looked as if he might take up the offer, but decided against it.

'Hey, Raven!' Inuyasha called. 'Want to try me?'

Raven shrugged and made her way down the slope, dropping her cloak as she went. Miroku's eyes popped at the amount of leg – and arm – and back – Raven's clothing showed. She took up position in front of Inuyasha, making no move. He unsheathed Tetsusaiga in a flare of golden light and ran at her, preparing to strike.

'Azarath…..Metrion…..Zinthos!' three boulders, wrapped in dark energy, flew at Inuyasha's head from behind him. He heard them and rolled, dodging them. A club swung at him, and he cut it with his sword, slashing at Raven with the same motion. She flew up, barely avoiding it. He leapt up at her, and she parried his blows with lances of energy before he fell back down, not being exempt from gravity.

Raven wiped a trace of blood from her cheek, and flicked it away – apparently, the sword didn't have to touch her to hurt her. She was also cut on her leg.

The fight was getting more earnest now. She sent spikes of energy at him, eyes glowing white. They nicked him, lightly enough to do little damage but deep enough to draw blood. Inuyasha growled, his attacks growing more intense.

Inuyasha's next stab was blocked by a barrier of black that encased him securely.

'WIND SCAR!' he roared and slammed the Tetsusaiga down with all his might. Bright gold shot out from the sword, leaving a set of slashes on the rock and flying out to meet the black shell that caged him.

Before Raven could react, her barrier was in shreds, and the backlash sent her flying several feet to sprawl on her back. Inuyasha sprang to her side, sword inches from her throat. He smirked as she stared up at him, still crackling with black.

'Do you yield?' he said, touching the clasp of her cloak with the Tetsusaiga's point.

'Do……you?' she croaked, one hand gesturing upward. He followed her hand to see a huge boulder hovering a foot or so off his head. He could attack her and defend himself, but it would mean killing her, and this was a friendly fight.

Silence. They stared at each other. Raven was panting with effort.

'A draw?' he offered finally. She blinked in assent, unable to move her head without stabbing herself. He withdrew, and the boulder floated to the ground beside her. He helped her up.

There was applause from the audience.

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Miroku turned to Starfire and half-bowed. 'Would you like to?' he offered. Since it seemed to be Sengoku Jidai vs. Jump City today, he figured he might as well have a turn and Starfire looked easy enough. Besides, he'd be able to cop a feel or two…….

'I apologise, Miroku,' she said, sweatdropping, 'but I fear it would hardly be an equal battle. Would one of your companions perhaps join us?'

He smiled that infamous smile of his. 'I think that won't be necessary.'

Miroku looked at Starfire and smiled again, signaling his readiness. They faced each other on the hard-packed ground. A large quantity of that hard-packed ground wound up in Miroku's mouth approximately two seconds later as Starfire unleashed a thunderous bolt of green lightning that sent him flying. She powered up another rather halfhearted ball and hovered over him.

'I am stronger than I look,' she remarked to the stunned houshi. Her trademark line. 'I am sorry if I hurt you with my starbolt, Miroku. Would you like to fight some more?'

Snickers drifted down from the Titans watching from above. Inuyasha was almost weeping with joy at the sight of Miroku laid low by yet another female.

'And this one you didn't even ask to bear your child……' he wheezed between manic guffaws. Kagome was smiling too, but she politely hid it behind a slender hand. Sango was carefully expressionless, which meant she was as amused as the hanyou.

Miroku promptly rectified the situation by asking Starfire to bear his child.

'Please, who is your offspring and why should I undress him or her?' Starfire looked more clueless than any of them had ever seen. In moments of stress, she still reverted to her eccentric style of speaking.

Miroku explained.

Starfire blushed, red clashing horribly with orange skin.

A batarang and a boomerang hit him almost simultaneously.

Robin and Sango looked about ready to pop.

'I'd like a rematch,' Miroku said, smiling again. He didn't actually have to suck her into the wind tunnel, but he could deal with those starbolts of hers with it, and that would give him an edge. Starfire sighed and faced him again, regretfully. He backed away from her. He didn't want to hurt her by mistake.

Starfire powered up a starbolt, hovering again.

Miroku untied his beads and stuck his hand out slightly to the side. 'Wind tunnel!'

There was no explosion of air. There was no sense of emptying. There was no pull of gravity from within the wind tunnel. Nothing happened. Nothing at all.

The starbolt knocked him out almost immediately after.

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When he came to, the Titans were standing a respectful distance away. Sango and Kagome were holding him up, and Inuyasha was crouched in front of him. His arm was free from the glove and beads – why was it free? – why weren't they dead? – were they all dead?

'The wind tunnel, Miroku,' Sango said, almost whispered. 'It's gone.'

'Gone?' Miroku pushed himself upright. There was no bruise. Apparently those starbolts didn't leave marks. He brought his palm around and stared at it. The void was gone, all right. Completely. He could see the lines on his palm again. He hadn't seen those in so very long. Health line, relationship line, lifeline…….lifeline. The hand grew blurry. Alarmed, he blinked, wondering if something else was appearing on his palm, and the blurring vanished. He felt two warm trailing touches on his cheeks.

Oh. He was crying.

He clutched his palm to his chest and bent his head to hide his weakness. There was no relief, not yet. It was too soon for that. He knew. But all there was was a lack of emotion he didn't know he ever had, a void in his heart like the one in his hand. For all his confidence, a part of him had simply fatalistically known that he would never get rid of the wind tunnel, and the death of that part left him feeling empty.

Kagome and Sango both placed an arm around him, and Inuyasha snorted and said, 'Keh. I should have known. You're too stupid to die properly, monk.' Which, in Inuyasha-speak, translated to 'I'm happy you're alive, and I was worried about you.'

Miroku smiled. He was so happy at this moment that he didn't even think of groping either of their rears. Alive, healthy, with his friends around him. What more could a man ask for?

Chapter four: Pause.

'You do realise what this means,' Kagome said. They were all back inside Titans' Tower and were sprawled out on the sofas, carpet, air, or whatever suited them. Raven had cast translation spells for everyone. Sesshoumaru had taken an immediate dislike to Beast Boy following the first dog-themed one-liner. He stood as far away from the grass stain as he could, arms folded and aloof. Despite the summer heat, he was still dressed in his flowing robes. His only concession had been to discard his moko-moko sama.

Robin assumed authority of the extended group as naturally as he did the Titans. Kagome could see why. He was a good leader – heavy-handed at times, and he had the reputation of being utterly tactless, but in comparison to Inuyasha, he was a diplomat. More importantly, he had the presence and confidence to command, and the brains to do it well.

'Naraku's dead,' Robin said. 'How else would the wind tunnel just vanish?'

Kagome raised an internal eyebrow. Miroku had told him that much? Interesting. He rarely trusted anyone with that knowledge. 'Yes,' she confirmed. 'He must have. Which means that we succeeded in killing him in the past, doesn't it?'

'Monk,' Inuyasha growled. 'Did you feel anything at all when Raven took us through time? Maybe that's when the wind tunnel vanished.'

'No, nothing, really,' Miroku said, frowning. He cradled his right hand in his lap, and constantly stroked it with his left. Kagome wondered whether he was even conscious that he was doing it. He was clearly in shock. Sango and Inuyasha both watched him covertly, worried even if they didn't show it. His best friends. Kagome knew she'd never be as close to Miroku as they were, but he was dear to her nonetheless. It was a testimony to their control that neither of them had lost it in the least; she was on the verge of tears herself. 'I was a little distracted at the time, so I probably wouldn't have noticed.'

'We all were,' Sango said with a rueful grin.

'So that means we killed him?' Inuyasha said, clenching his fist.

'In the past, probably,' Kagome said. 'But he's definitely dead, because why else would the curse lift?'

'But if he's dead,' she continued thoughtfully, 'Why don't we have the completed Shikon jewel with us?' She reached into the jar at her neck. The fragments glowed and sparkled, but they were still the same size as they had been when she left Sengoku Jidai.

'Unless someone else killed him.'

They pondered that for a while. Inuyasha, predictably, was the first to tire of the speculation. He dealt in facts, and if he didn't know for sure, he simply didn't consider it in his thought. It was an attitude that had carried him through some tough situations, simply because he went into fights with no assumptions. 'This is stupid!' he burst out, springing to his feet. 'What's the point of all this thinking? We won't know how Naraku dies until we go back to the past and live through the events! It's that simple! Why worry about it until we have to go back?'

'I think Inuyasha has a point,' Raven said quietly. 'We don't really know how the past unfolded. There's no point in thinking about it now. Although,' she said thoughtfully, 'there are a few……. Give me a while and I'll try to get you some information. I have some contacts that might be useful, though they're hard to track.'

'In the meantime, though, you do have something else to think of,' Robin added soberly. 'You don't know for sure that Naraku died in your time; he could have died anytime in the last five hundred years. If you take Miroku back………you could cause his wind tunnel to form again.'

Miroku looked up, his eyes widening slightly. For the self-controlled houshi, that was a telling sign of shock. He stood up hastily. 'I……I really must……I need to think.'

He walked away dizzily, selecting a door at random. Kagome moved to follow him, but Sango caught her arm firmly and sat her back down. 'Give him time,' she said softly.

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When Miroku wasn't back by lunchtime, they all went looking for him. Raven found him on the roof, her favourite spot. He was still staring at his hand, legs dangling over the edge of the tower. Beyond him, the sea sparkled and broke merrily.

'The shock of being alive when you didn't think you would be…..' she said, drifting down to join him. 'It won't ever really fade. But the fear and the pain, that will go.'

'What do you know about it,' he said harshly.

'More than you do,' she replied.

'I was this close to dying, Raven,' he said quietly, holding finger and thumb an inch apart. 'The wind tunnel wouldn't have lasted another month. Maybe less. I was quite reconciled to dying….and then…….'

Inuyasha came up behind them before the shocked empath could reply. 'Oi, monk,' he said in his rough voice. 'I thought you'd been kidnapped or something.' I was wondering where you were, Miroku translated. He smiled a little. The hanyou was the closest friend he'd ever had. Terrible at the soft stuff, and hardly a shoulder to cry on the best of days, but he'd have traded his life for Miroku's in a second, in that gruff annoyed way of his. However, saying that would have earned Miroku a punch in the head, so he wisely maintained silence.

'Kidnapped, Inuyasha? I hope you imagined it was a pretty girl at least.' He got up, dusting himself off by habit.

'Miroku, are you feeling unhappy?' Starfire said, flying up the side of the tower to meet them. 'I shall make my special dish of happiness for you!'

'Piece of advice, Miroku,' Raven mumbled. 'Not if you value your insides where they are. So not.'

'Ah,' he said smoothly, falling back into routine. 'It is true that I am in the depths of despair, dear Starfire. Would you make me the happiest man alive by agreeing to bear my child?'

'Miroku,' Raven and Inuyasha said warningly.

'Miroku,' Starfire said sweetly, 'Perhaps what you need is not the dish of happiness but a starbolt in the stomach. Would you like one?'

Miroku swallowed. Memo to self: don't underestimate her.

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Lunch that day was almost completely silent at first. The food was delicious, but nobody enjoyed it, with the exception of Sesshoumaru, who dug into his meal with relish. It consisted almost entirely of chocolate and chips. He completely ignored the tension wracking everyone else, which only served to make it worse. Everyone was edging around Miroku, and their consideration made him so uncomfortable that he couldn't banter as he usually did. It became quieter and quieter. By the time they washed up, it was positively oppressive.

Unsurprisingly, it was Beast Boy who broke it. He looked hopefully at Miroku and Inuyasha. 'So…….you want to play Mega Monkeys XVII?'

'Keh!' Inuyasha said. 'Stupid games. Kagome's brother always plays them.' But he drifted over to the TV anyway. An evil smile curved Beast Boy's face, and his ears perked up for the first time that evening.

'What's Mega Monkeys XVII?' Miroku said curiously.

All hell broke loose.

Six hours later, Beast Boy, Inuyasha and Miroku were still playing. Their eyes were glassy with strain, and Kagome could hear the frying brain cells all the way across the room. They had finished with Mega Monkeys long ago and were on to the combat games. Sango had joined them at that point. Sango was playing well, and she and Inuyasha were beating the other two into the ground. 'Take that! And that!' Sango cried, not quite as loud as a battle cry but close. 'You will DIE!'

Inuyasha was growling with glee like he did in a battle, and Beast Boy and Miroku were grimly silent. The game was reaching epic levels of ridiculousness. Raven, Kagome and Sesshoumaru were watching with almost identical expressions of disgust. Robin had picked up a paper and was steadily ignoring the rising noise, and Cyborg had left long ago, annoyed that nobody was giving him a turn. Rin, who had taken a great liking to both Cyborg and the T-Car, followed him out.

'Tcheh!' Sesshoumaru snorted at last. 'Pathetic childishness!' And he left the room as regally as ever. That broke everybody up. Raven trailed off to the roof to meditate, Kagome went to Starfire's room and Robin, still immersed in the news, threw an absentminded 'keep the noise down' at the combatants and walked out muttering about Two-Face's latest stunt. Nobody heard him; nobody saw him go.

When Raven passed through the tower on the way to her bedroom, it was near nine at night. The noise had died away, but the blue and green light of the TV was still visible. And by the sounds of it, someone was still playing. Nine hours!

'You know, Beast Boy, you've got too few brain cells left to risk an–' Raven phased into the room and stopped dead, her jaw dropping. Sesshoumaru sprang guiltily away from the controls, landing all the way across the room. Raven could have laughed – was perilously close to it – but that would have offended the demon, and she did have to put up with him after all. Instead, she peered at the screen. Her eyebrow went up.

'That's quite a high score you have up there.'

Some indefinable tension left him.

'You know,' she said conversationally, 'if you didn't expect everyone to fear you or hate you, you might actually find people liking you.'

He shot her a look.

'Rin likes you,' Raven observed. Deliberately, she turned her back on him. If he wasn't so focused on being calm, he'd listen better. She sat down crosslegged in front of the TV. Looked back at him over her shoulder, the folds of her cloak hiding most of her expression from him. 'So, you gonna play or do you like the wall an awful lot?'

Slowly, much more slowly than he would normally have walked, he went over to the TV and sat beside her. She handed him a set of controls and turned the game back on. Neither spoke after that.

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Raven moved the bookshelf aside again the next morning. Again, he was awake, golden eyes watching her coolly, but this time his sword wasn't drawn and he was still stretched out on the couch. She noted that he still slept with Rin behind his back, though. She had a feeling that was automatic. 'Morning, Sesshoumaru,' she yawned as she floated to the bathroom…..and stopped and stared at the cornflower-blue sky outside. She'd overslept by at least an hour. Closer to two, perhaps. She shook her head. After all those years of laughing at Beast Boy for playing for hours, she'd finally done it herself. And liked it. Horrifying. The world really was coming to an end, and this time she didn't even have to open any portals. The very idea of the Azarathian playing video games was ludicrous enough that the universe might just collapse in a fit of disbelief.

The dark amusement of the thought was enough to levitate the bookshelf again, though she wasn't aware of it. The bookshelf floated closer and closer to the inuyoukai, who watched it with detached interest. Raven snickered at some thought, and Sesshoumaru's brow crunched as the bookshelf hovered right above him. It wouldn't even scratch him if it fell on him, but what piqued his curiosity was that he was sure that Raven didn't know what she was doing. Sure enough, when he cleared his throat pointedly, she leapt around, startled, and grimaced in dismay, returning the bookshelf to its proper place.

'Having trouble controlling your powers, h-Raven?' Sesshoumaru smirked, correcting himself. A promise was a promise, after all. Behind him, Rin stirred.

'It's none of your business,' she snapped.

'So defensive. Did I hit a sore point?' Rin was clambering all over him while trying to get off the couch. He let her, only wincing a little when she stepped firmly on his delicate ear. Throughout, he held Raven's eyes, an incredibly smug look on his face.

'It's terribly sad that you find satisfaction and self-esteem in making fun of others,' Raven told him unemotionally. 'What's the matter, afraid they'll be more than you are?'

Inuyasha's youkai face flashed before him, and Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. He sat upright so quickly that Rin fell off the couch with a squeak. He caught her with his hand before she could hit the ground. 'Never presume to speak to me so,' he said coldly.

She nodded quietly, though he was certain she wasn't too afraid of him. 'And that's exactly how I felt a moment ago,' she said by way of explanation, and then vanished into the bathroom.

Sesshoumaru set Rin down, brow creased again in the solitude. She'd done it again – messed with his mind and left him puzzled and intrigued. It was strangely addictive, the feeling that Raven understood him. She barely knew him. How could she read him so well? That thought set off a chain reaction in his mind, and his head snapped up to stare at the bathroom door when he finally followed it through to the finish.

'Reading me,' he murmured almost inaudibly. 'She's an empath………' a surge of hot anger swelled in him. The corners of his eyes reddened for an instant before he forced the transformation back. He would take care of this one with a clear mind.

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He slammed the bathroom door open. She stood right in front of it, obviously about to come out. 'Wait,' she said calmly in that monotone voice of hers.

He snarled wordlessly and leapt at her. She wrapped him in a black barrier. He thrashed, trying to break it. She was straining to hold him, he saw.

'I warned you not to share my room,' she said, still calm, but urgent. Trying to get something across before he killed her. 'I have no control over whose mind I touch when I sleep. Being this close…….you were bound to register. I've been dreaming your memories, yes. Some of them.' He broke free of the barrier and she flinched but continued. 'The spell I'm anchoring for you makes the dreams worse. I'm sorry. I wish I couldn't read minds. But I can't help it.' She dropped her hands to her sides and waited. He was staring at her, face blank, body still, and while his aura was still flaring his emotions were subsiding into…..confusion? Why was he confused? What was he thinking of? 'I do have some boundaries, you know; I don't tell anyone what I see.'

'I will stay here,' he said coldly. 'I does not fear what you may tell others of him.'

'I had expected that,' she said seriously. If he had accepted, it would have surprised her. He was the kind who'd advertise his weakness to his worst enemy and rip him to shreds anyway. It's Rin you're worried about, isn't it? If someone found out you cared for her. A mild word. The girl was the object of every affection the youkai allowed himself to feel. Why, Raven didn't know. 'And I'm glad you didn't kill me.'

'Feh,' he said, crossing his arms. At that moment, he looked startlingly like his half-brother. 'If I had, the spell would have unraveled.'

'Yes,' she said evenly, letting nothing show. 'Yes, there is that, I suppose.'

He turned away.

'Friend Raven?' Starfire called. 'We are ready to leave!'

'Coming,' Raven called. They had agreed to tour Jump City today, and it was apparently time to leave. Sesshoumaru was already out of the room.

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When they came to the front room of the tower, everyone else was assembled except for Robin and Sango. Cyborg had elected to stay behind and watch the still-comatose Jinx.

'Where are they?' Inuyasha said for the nth time.

'For the last time, I have no idea!' Kagome snapped. 'Stop asking!'

They ran up to the others as Kagome said that. Both looked freshly showered. 'Training,' Robin said by way of excuse.

'Terrific,' Raven said. 'Finally, he's found someone as crazy about practice as he is.'

'Maybe he'll let us off the hook now,' Beast Boy said hopefully.

They wandered around Jump City all morning. Miroku and Rin were delighted by everything. Sango was a little more subdued, and Sesshoumaru downright quiet. He tried very hard to keep his stoic mask on, but his aura reflected a host of emotions that the empath could read easily. The lack of meditation that morning hadn't been good for Raven. Her powers were harder to control than they usually were.

Inuyasha had been worried that their group, with their odd looks, would stick out too much. Then he looked at the Titans and felt reassured. It wasn't possible to look much weirder than they did. For the first time, he didn't have to jam a cap on his head or wear shoes when he was in the future, and that was a definite relief. Jump City was warmer than Tokyo, and his feet sweated terribly in shoes. Not to mention the tears and rips his claws caused.

He glanced over at his brother. Sesshoumaru had left the moko-moko sama at the tower, along with the spiky breastplate, but the formal robes and sheathed swords were still with him. His eyes were taking everything in, and letting nothing out. How he could be so unemotional, Inuyasha didn't know. It wasn't as if all demons were incapable of feeling, but Sesshoumaru was unpredictable even for a demon. Probably the only thing he could be sure about Sesshoumaru was that he hated Inuyasha.

And Kagome doubted that, too. Keh.

They went to the mall, where Starfire and Kagome broke off from the rest, dragging Rin and a highly reluctant Sango with them. From the sound of it, they were trying to buy her a new wardrobe. A large one. Raven saw a bookstore and drifted off from the rest. To her surprise, Miroku and Sesshoumaru both followed once they saw where she was going. She shrugged and let them.

Which left Inuyasha, Robin and Beast Boy. They stared warily at each other for a second.

'Arcade?' The grass stain suggested.

'Let's,' Robin agreed.

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'Here,' Raven said to the cashier, levitating a huge pile of books onto the counter. The other two were right behind her. 'What did you buy?' Miroku said, leaning over her shoulder to see the books. Raven cringed. The houshi had no sense of personal space.

'Horror, fantasy, occult literature and history,' she said. As the cashier finished the bill, she picked up the packages with her power.

'Here. This one's for the two of you.'

They examined the books inside the packet she held out to them. Most were on history and science. All were in Japanese. 'An overview of world history, 1600-2000,' Sesshoumaru read out. 'A timeline of inventions. English for beginners. This is…useful.'

'Thank you, Raven,' Miroku said with his best bow. 'You care greatly for those who have done little yet to deserve it.'

Raven sniffed, amused by the difference between the two men who had just essentially said the same thing. 'Don't get too grateful. You're carrying this around the rest of today.' She tossed the bag to Sesshoumaru. He swatted it aside to Miroku.

'Hey!' the monk protested, but he took the bag anyway.

Raven's communicator crackled. She lifted it to her face. 'Raven,' Robin said crisply into the camera. 'There's some sort of disturbance a few blocks away. Looks like Plasmus.'

'Oh, gross…….' Raven said, remembering the slime the villain's body was made of and how badly it usually splattered. 'I'll be there. Three minutes.' She turned to the two men. 'Something's come up. I need to go.'

'We'll come with you,' Miroku said immediately. Sesshoumaru looked annoyed at being included in the statement, but not averse to joining her.

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'RAAHR!' Plasmus' garbled roar wasn't actually scaring anyone. His drippy toxic gloop, though, they all steered carefully around. Robin was throwing discs at Plasmus. They froze some of his tentacles, but more kept growing. The man/monster had already blasted a huge hole in a bank vault when they arrived, but he hadn't done much after that.

'Let me handle this,' Inuyasha said to Robin. 'Haven't had a good fight in weeks.'

'BWAAAHGRH!' the monster clarified as it rampaged over the square. And stopped short, faced by one highly unimpressed half-demon.

Inuyasha raised a dark eyebrow. 'You think that's scary?' he sneered. 'Get a day job. My grandmother was scarier than you!'

Sesshoumaru, who, unlike Inuyasha, had actually met their grandmother, fervently agreed with the statement. Silently, of course. He didn't bother to join in. The creature didn't look challenging at all, and even the fun of stealing Inuyasha's game wasn't worth it.

'GWAH?' Plasmus said questioningly.

'Gwah yourself! Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!' Inuyasha howled, streaking up in a blur to rip Plasmus apart with his bare hands. The Titans grimaced simultaneously. This wasn't going to be pretty.

Sure enough, Inuyasha's claws tore into Plasmus as if he were light as water. The monster almost flew apart with the force of his claws. His sleeping human form regained, the slime became limp and splattered everywhere. Prisoner 385901 was back.

'Peh!' Inuyasha spat. And spat again. His mouth had been open in a battle cry when he struck and he had expected Plasmus to be much tougher. The gloop was covering him now, and it was in his mouth and nose. He sneezed seven times rapidly and spat again. His face was screwed up into a comical grimace and he was dripping with slime. His ears were twitching. All in all, not a pretty sight. 'Peh! Peh, ptui, pthick!'

Sesshoumaru smirked. Just as well he hadn't fought, then. His half-brother was looking wildly funny at the moment. In fact, Kagome was laughing, and so were the others.

'Cheer up, guys! I'm here to make your day brighter!' Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow as a man in a black suit appeared before them.

'Dr. Light,' Robin said wearily. 'How many times do we have to stuff you away?'

'Jail doesn't hold anybody as bright as I am,' Dr Light said cheerfully. Then he saw Raven and his face fell slightly.

'Still afraid of the dark?' Raven said softly. He cringed.

'Come quietly or…….' She left the rest of the sentence unsaid, but the villain knew precisely what she was talking about. Raven created an illusion of red eyes above her own, letting her face sink into her hood until two glowing white and two red eyes were all he could see. She didn't notice the expression on the others' faces. Dr Light's arms shot up so fast they nearly caught fire. Raven nearly laughed at the sight. Robin quickly handcuffed him and peeled the chest area of the suit off, leaving him without powers.

'My, you're easy,' she said darkly.

'Raven?' Beast Boy approached her cautiously. 'You're……..not angry, are you?'

With a start, she realised that they didn't know it wasn't real. 'Don't worry,' she shrugged. 'It was an illusion.'

Beast Boy sagged with relief. 'I thought you'd……lost control……like the first time.'

Raven shook her head, keeping her façade in place. Grateful that the shapechanger, who was the closest thing she had to a best friend, was concerned. 'No, I'm fine.'

She didn't notice Sesshoumaru.

Chapter five: Nevermore.

They returned to Titans' Tower quite late in the evening. They'd eaten out, and most of them were about ready to drop in their tracks. When the T-Car pulled into the garage, there was a general move to leave. Amid the thank-yous and good-nights, Raven peeled away from the rest to go to her room and meditate. She needed to rather badly. Spending hours in huge crowds was mentally draining on her – the invasive emotions were hard to dismiss after a while. Several mugs of soothing tea and a couple hours' meditation seemed just the thing to restore her frayed nerves.

When she entered the room, turning on the soft pearl lighting, Sesshoumaru was trying to make Rin lie on the bed, though the child was showing no sign of slowing down. Damn that youkai speed – he'd beaten her through the tower even though she had phased. Why couldn't she have inherited that instead of her empathy? Oh, right. Different demon type.

He picked up a history book and settled down on an armchair to read. Raven sighed and began her familiar chant.

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Raven twitched. It was absolutely impossible to meditate like this. 'Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos… Azarath… Metrion… Zin– oh, would you stop that!' she snapped.

'Stop what?' The very picture of innocence. They should put him in a stained glass window. Or in the dictionary. What she left of him. He'd finished the book in about an hour and was now staring at her back. Feeling a pair of cool amber eyes boring into her spine was not the right way to feel calm, relaxed and in harmony with the universe. Rin running through her room was making it worse. The girl didn't know when to stop. She was apparently an insomniac. A hyperactive insomniac. And the six mega-bumper ice-cream sundaes that Starfire had treated her to had to help. It was worse than Beast Boy on a video-game binge.

'Stop staring at me. It's disturbing.'

'Why do you meditate?'

Now where did that come from? she wondered. Floated around to face him.

'It helps me control my emotions. If I feel too much, I affect my environment rather badly. I'm sure you've guessed by now.'

There was no response. So he had guessed. 'Why ask me a question just to see if I'll give you the real answer? You're not the only one who's not afraid of others, you know. Lord Sesshoumaru,' she added mockingly.

He was still staring at her with that weird intensity. It was unsettling, to say the least. He seemed deep in thought, as if he were trying to reconcile something.

'Your aura….' he said finally. 'It is familiar somehow. I've never smelt anyone like you, but I know you. And those eyes……'

It took all of Raven's control not to make a movement at those words. If Sesshoumaru connected her to Trigon, he would finish her immediately. Of that, she was sure, and the spell be damned. Her father was making enemies right and left, as always. Only this one had survived, thanks to Jinx.

Jinx………Raven sighed. The hexer was still unconscious. Even a healing trance shouldn't have lasted this long. She'd been down to the med room that morning, and the girl had been stretched out, floating above the bed gently, face set in a relaxed but uneasy pose. There was nothing from her……..as if something inside her had been displaced and was putting itself back together. It was more than that, of course, but Raven's mind had boggled at the idea of expressing the entirety of the feeling of Jinx. That had been the best she could do. The prickle of magic that surrounded her kept triggering her own at odd intervals. It left her helpless, and she did not like helplessness.

Sighing again, Raven settled into the bed, not answering Sesshoumaru's question. He'd find out sooner or later……preferably much later. Years and years. Not much chance of that, though. The youkai was sharp. She forgot to pull the bookshelf between them.

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About two hours later, she woke up suddenly, feeling some sort of magic. Jinx, she decided, and turned over to sleep when she was jolted awake again by Sesshoumaru's smooth voice.

'Raven. Raven!' There was a note of panic in it that she had never heard before. She sat upright, pulling her eyelids apart, and stared at the youkai. His face was blasted wide open by something, expressions clear for the first time. Concern, fear, instinctive rage. His eyes were darker, redder, she noted, and shivered. 'I can't smell Rin anywhere.'

'What?' she said, still foggy with sleep. 'Smell what?'

'Five minutes ago, her smell vanished. I was asleep and I didn't see……. I've checked the whole tower.'

'Vanished…….' Her first thought was that Jinx had done something, but the hexer couldn't teleport. Not Red X either, kidnapping wasn't his style. So how………

Raven's eyes widened. 'No way,' she breathed, almost running to her dressing table. The Azarathian mirror was lying on the floor in front of it. Not where she'd left it at all. 'Not again, not that infernal mirror again!'

'Mirror?' Sesshoumaru said, reaching over to it. She swatted his hand away despite her knowledge that he hated being touched.

'If you touch it it's going to take you in too.'

'Is she in there?'

'I…..think so.' As she spoke, Raven felt a rush of anger. She shook with the need to control the sudden, irrational emotion, suppressed it with a severe effort. Rage. Rage was with Rin? Not good. Though it was much less embarrassing. When BB and Cyborg had gone into her mirror by mistake, they'd met Happy, and she'd scared the daylights out of Robin and Starfire by laughing uncontrollably. The memory was enough to make her blush on most days. 'I'll get her out.'

Raven activated the mirror. She didn't expect him to latch on to her hair as the mirror sucked her in. With a yelp of pain, she found herself inside Nevermore with the youkai by her side. Knowledge hurried up to her, adjusting her glasses. 'She's with Rage…..'

Raven whirled to face Sesshoumaru, still wincing from the pain as she massaged her tender scalp. 'I told you not to come here! Are you deaf?' At least she could act emotional here without backlash.

He ignored her completely, staring at Knowledge with fascination. 'You are her…….' He said, looking between her and Raven. 'But you have no smell……..'

'Of course she's me,' Raven snapped. 'We're in my mind, who did you expect to find here? You?'

He ignored that. 'In your mind? This mirror……….'

'Yes, it's a portal into a physical form of my mind. Happy now? –And I don't smell! Knowledge. What's Rage doing? How did she get free?'

'She didn't. Rin went to her before I could intercept her.'

'Foolish child,' she breathed. 'Let's go.' Sesshoumaru fell into step behind her, the youkai silently acknowledging her supremacy in this place. That was surprising, but there was no time to dwell on it now.

The place they were in shifted twice, and they were in Rage's domain. Raven stalked through the bleak canyon-shaped domain as if he didn't exist. She resisted the urge to mutter to herself – and wondered why. Anything she said in here was talking to herself, after all.

'Rage!' she called. 'Come here!'

The red-cloaked, four-eyed version of herself was suddenly there before them, snarling with fury at being summoned so easily. In one hand, she held Rin in a not-so-gentle grip by the scruff of her neck. The child was trembling with shock and fear.

'Sesshoumaru-sama!' she called in a higher voice than usual.

Raven could sense the inuyoukai behind her tense, and she thrust an arm in front of him before he could move. In this realm, Rage was far more powerful than any of them except Raven herself. And even the unified Raven found Rage a hard emotion to resist.

'Put her down, Rage,' Raven said, emotionless.

'Want to protect the little brat?' Rage sneered, shaking Rin slightly. 'How sweet of you. But why bother? Can't the big dog demon handle a little girl like me?'

Sesshoumaru was snarling behind her, and Rage in front of her. The similarity of the sound struck Raven forcibly.

'Why help him, Raaevennnn?' she drawled. 'Half-breed, worthless woman, pathetic……. he called all the words you hated, and you still help him. Tut, tut. I was hoping you'd kill him and you come to rescue his child instead?'

'I like her around, strange as that may be. Put her down, Rage!' Raven could feel her own anger, and she quelled it ruthlessly. 'Put her down, or I swear I'll lock you so deep in me even darkness will look bright.'

Rage grimaced. 'Now, now, no need to be nasty, is there? I was just having a bit of fun with her, that's all. Wouldn't want to hurt her. It's so rare that people want to visit me. It's not been too entertaining here these last few years, Raven.' A sly, malicious grin curved her mouth. Raven consciously unclenched her fist. 'The last visitors I had…..Beast Boy and Cyborg. Such boring non-entities. They did stand up to Trigon well, though, didn't they?'

Raven's eyes widened, suddenly realising where Rage was going with this.

'Yes,' she continued reminiscently, the malice still lurking in her voice. 'The easiest battle you ever had with him was when those two helped you. I must admit, I'd never considered unification before, and you did it – twice! Not bad at all. I still remember the look on their faces when you told them…….' She let go of Rin and took a step back. In a blur of motion, Sesshoumaru retrieved the girl.

'…….that Trigon was your father.'

Raven slumped. The youkai gasped in realisation. Rin looked blankly between them.

'Damn you,' Raven hissed. 'Can't leave well enough alone, can you? Father? That abomination is no more my father than Slade!'

The eyes glowed bright crimson. 'Of course I can't leave well enough alone,' Rage said. 'I'm your connection to your power, after all. The more I grow, the more powerful you get. And what would Raven do to save all those poor helpless people if she left her anger behind?'

'Shut up. Shut up!' Raven could feel the anger in herself rising steadily and let it this time. 'I don't want to do this here, now.' She directed a blast of dark energy at her other self, an explosion of black that blinded them all. When it cleared, Rage was chained to the rocks, screaming in fury, and Raven was her usual unemotional self. She turned blank eyes to Sesshoumaru and Rin.

'Get out of here.' With a flick of her hand, she opened the portal out of the mirror. It sucked them out, leaving her alone.

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Sesshoumaru was deep in thought when he was dropped back into Raven's room. The first thing he did was sniff Rin's scent. She smelled fine, if frightened. Her memory of Raven's mind was already fading. He had always appreciated Rin's tactic of simply forgetting things she didn't want to remember. Considering his lifestyle, it was probably a good thing. Reassured, he told her to run along and find someone to play with and then dropped gracefully to the low couch, awaiting Raven's return.

So she was Trigon's pup, was she. Well. That was interesting. He wondered again whether to kill her. It wasn't necessary, he decided. If she had wanted him dead, she would simply have refused to cast the spell that rejoined his soul and his body. And she didn't seem overly fond of Trigon herself, and Jinx had told him that she had banished the demon once before.

He reflected on the one thing he hadn't told anyone.

Sesshoumaru dodged another fire-creature and sliced two of its companions apart with Tenseiga. It hadn't taken him long to figure out that he was facing the undead; what was taking a little longer was figuring out how and why they were in his dreams. And who their master was. He had called himself Trigon. As he fought the fire-creatures – pitiful weaklings that died with a simple cut – his gaze flickered repeatedly to the giant red-bodied demon that controlled them. At last, he dispatched the army of minions and stood before the master. His height dwarfed Sesshoumaru by a hundred times. Briefly, the youkai considered transforming, but with no left arm, that was more trouble than it was worth. Besides, he'd only come up to the demon's thigh, if that, and that would be mildly embarrassing.

He was ready, beyond ready, to fight. But the last thing he had been expecting was a telepathic battle. Trigon's presence suddenly filled his mind, trying to push Sesshoumaru's life-force out of his body. The youkai fought as hard as he could. His mind was reeling under the unexpected assault and the sheer power of it. A harsh cry forced itself out of his throat. His struggles were growing weaker.

A voice intruded itself upon their struggle, a discordant scrapy voice that called his name. Jaken. He was lightly touching the inuyoukai's shoulder, worried that he hadn't woken up at the sound of the toad's footsteps. The pressure grew greater and now he was being shaken hard by his panicked retainer, and Trigon was roaring in anger at being disturbed, and the serene Japanese dreamscape was rippling and shivering as if it were a reflection that had been broken, and then a surge of Trigon's power had curled through Sesshoumaru, striking at the toad's body, turning one of his two companions into stone. That surge of power gave Sesshoumaru the break, and the action gave him the strength, to resist and push the demon out of his body before jerking awake with a strangled scream to see a screaming Rin and a stone Jaken………he hadn't dared to close his eyes again until that first night in Raven's room, his first night in the future.

The Azarathian came out of the mirror a while later, looking tired and ruffled and resigned. 'So now you know,' she said quietly.

He nodded. 'I already suspected.' She made a graceful gesture that indicated her assent.

'So what are you going to do about it?'

'Nothing,' Sesshoumaru said calmly. 'You are no threat to me.' By the way she stiffened, he knew she had misinterpreted his statement. It didn't matter. 'Should I change my opinion, I will act; but until then……..'

She waited for him to finish the sentence, but he didn't. He wasn't really sure how the sentence ended, either.