Disclaimer: Yadda yadda yadda, you know and I know that I don't own 'em.

A/N: It is SO late right now that all I'm going to say is that I wrote most of this up in a short period of timeand I think it stinks. I'vc ebeen suffering writer's block lately. Either I'm doing stuff for class or I'm thinking or talking to the stupid womanizing best friend of mine that I seem to have like...developed something for. Yeah...he French kissed me today. If my parents knewI think they would burn me at the stake. He was my first french kiss and he was good (grins dumbly) I am very stupid...but yeah, question's comments, I'm about ready to die since it's 5:30 and I'm not asleep yet...night, er morning...yeah...

Troubling Decisions

Your hatred and cruelty have pushed everyone you love away from you, my lady.

Taikokajin tilted her head sharply, her features tensing with something akin to distaste. She laughed once, short and harshly into her empty chambers. Her hair, so white it was nearly transparent, flowed around her messily. She'd risen that morning and promptly realized that she had almost no maids left after her battle with the miko…

It was early morning. Light streamed in from the open screens, a scent of tranquility and sweetness, the first spring pollen, drifted in from the window. It was going to be a wonderful day, but Taikokajin felt nothing less than miserable.

Her hair was a mess without the help of her many personal maids to comb it out, oil it, and then style it however she saw fit. This day she had to look like a harmless, beautiful woman. Her brother and her uncle were coming to speak over the trade between the provinces within the Middle Lands. It was tedious, boring things to speak about, but Taikokajin couldn't forget about it—after all it was her turn to host the quarterly meeting. If either of her male relatives saw fit, they'd plow her under. If they knew she'd lost her daughter to a monster and gone mad with worry, sacrificing her son and tracking down her distant, famous half demon cousin Inuyasha, they'd usurp her for sure. She'd lose her lands, her wealth, and her position.

Her well-being depended on how well she could act before the others, how well she could appear before them, neat, tidy, beautiful and orderly—as if nothing were wrong at all.

And there were no maids to help her. Only the idiotic Nikimi.

Her long, wicked claws bit into the delicate white skin of her palms. I should've just killed her, she berated herself angrily, and had the simple thought of shouting for the last maid—Nikimi—and ordering the foolish little ninny to tell the soldiers to kill the miko…or better still, she could order poison slipped into the little bitch's tea…

A hard, cruel smile curved over her pale lips. Yes…poison. She was supposed to die under that monster's curse anyway.

Your hatred and your cruelty have made enemies of your kin. You have made enemies of those that would stand by you. You've destroyed your own future…

"No, you destroyed my future!" standing up readily, she swayed for a moment, and then grumblingly pulled her gray-pink robes more tightly around her, composing herself. She focused her thoughts, pushing away the quiet, whispering voice that laughed snidely within her head. It came using her father's voice, but speaking the message that her human mate, the priest named Kokoro, had often taunted her with.

She shuddered, looking quickly around the well-lighted room, the spring breeze suddenly a little too chilly for her thinner under robe. Fussily, she tied her sash, closing the robe against the cold firmly. "I didn't ruin my future," she snarled into the air of the empty room, "You and that bastard priest master that trained you did."

The room gave her no answer.

Abruptly embarrassed of herself, Taikokajin scoffed and hurried to the door of her personal chambers. The hallway was full of a slight breeze and whistled past her pale hair as she moved from her chambers to the mirrored dressing room. As she'd partly expected, Nikimi wasn't in the room waiting for her, as Momo or Mitori would have. Taikokajin snarled at her image in the mirrors of the room. In the gray light from the screened windows she could see the lines of weariness and stress in her cheeks, around her mouth and her eyes.

Your hatred ages you, as does taking the innocent lives of others. It aged your soul first, and then moved into your flesh. It is like a disease…

Something cold and ugly flared inside Taikokajin's chest. The light from the screens seemed to dip and change, lightening and darkening. The voice, she knew, was only in her mind, it had to be—but when she looked in the mirror she could almost suppose she saw the light in the room change, shifting and growing. It formed the flitting ghost shapes she so feared.

And this time the voice hadn't spoken like either the monk or her father. It choose instead to whisper to her in Haiseishoku's voice. She could still remember his blue-eyed gaze on her. He'd been awed at their first ceremonial meeting before the wedding day. Later that same gaze was hungry on their wedding night. It'd terrified her, left her feeling raw and vulnerable for the first time in her life. She'd been timid with mourning—her beloved father's death was still so fresh and raw on her heart. Haiseishoku had been older and loving with her…but she had no use for him as soon as she overcame her guilt and refused to be treated as a woman, to be seen as less than her husband and mate.

She'd sent him away almost the moment Shimofuri was born alive and healthy. He served her purposes as nothing but a stud dog in the end, and she'd made sure he understood that. The Middle Lands were hers, not his through marriage. Haiseishoku hadn't liked that idea at all, but really, if he'd been in her place he would've expected her to play the same role, as only the female he used to carry and birth his pups. She'd won in the end, even if she'd had to kill him to do it. She didn't care how she won her battles as long as she won them. She would rule alone, she would be strong as her father had always intended her to be.

She turned purposefully away from the mirrors and looked back toward the door. "Nikimi!" she shouted, though it was doubtful that the maid would hear her…

Her pink eyes widened, goggling as she saw a shadow appear on the screened walls, and smelled Haiseishoku. She held her breath without even realizing it, panicked and frozen with her wild fear.

"You are like a disease to the Middle Lands, Taikokajin." Haisheishoku's voice spoke to her through the thin walls of her dressing room. The shadow on the screens took a step closer to the door, his robes moving over the bends and ripples in the screens. A clawed hand, with long, strong fingers, reached for the door to slide it open and confront her…

"No!" leaping to her feet, and nearly stumbling over her robes to do it; Taikokajin threw herself against the door, holding it shut. Her breathing was like a hurricane in her own ears. The world seemed to spin. The lighting in the room dimmed and dimmed, growing darker and grayer. It was as if the sun had passed behind a cloud.

"You can't come in with your lies! I won't let you use me!" she shouted at the door when it jumped against her clawed hands. The shadow on the other side of the door withdrew, seeming to shrink slightly.

"My lady?" a whimpering, quavering voice called out. It was Nikimi.

Suddenly, and with a small amount of terror, Taikokajin saw that the shadow she'd been so sure was her dead husband and Shimofuri's father, was actually a thin, lithe woman's shadow. The claws she'd seen were tiny, fragile nails.

She withdrew from the door a few steps, taking a couple deep breaths. "Come in, Nikimi."

The door slid open with a grating sound and a startled, wide-eyed Nikimi blinked at her from beyond the threshold. Seeing her mistress's angry, upset expression, she immediately dropped to the floor in a bow. "Please forgive me, lady…I meant no offence…"

"Offence?" Taikokajin spat out, "Offence! There's been nothing that could offend anyone! There was no dishonor at all! Everything I did was right!"

"Yes, milady, of course milady." Nikimi quivered, afraid for her life at the rage she heard in Taikokajin's voice.

There was a long pause, and slowly, Taikokajin breathed out, relaxing. Nikimi heard the demon woman's small footsteps retreat to stand in front of the mirrors again, staring into them solemnly. "Hurry up and dress me you stupid girl—today is an important day for me. I must look my best today. Can you manage?"

"Yes, my lady." Truly there was nothing else she could say, even if the words were an utter lie. Cautiously, Nikimi glanced up and took in the stiffness of her mistress's back and spine, and the hard set of her face. She kept her unease from showing itself on her own face when she sat up, speaking. "A red kimono for today then?"

"Yes...and the moment I am free of my idiot kinsmen, I must ask you to bring me the miko."

"It is no problem, mistress." Nikimi bowed again, making sure her silent scowl was hidden. Hadn't Taikokajin come to her senses considering Lady Inuyasha yet? Nikimi didn't want to die or be severely wounded while serving the useless, impractical whims of her lady.

"Bring me the miko without the pup. Do you understand what I am asking?"

"You're going to kill her, milady?" Nikimi squeezed her eyes shut against the surprise and disapproval she heard inside her own voice.

"No—but while she is with me, I want you to take that pup from her and hide him."

"But…why? Why mistress? Why her pup when he is—"

"Do not question me Nikimi!" Taikokajin shouted and then, twisting her torso around so she could stare at Nikimi directly, she scowled, "Where's that kimono?"

Nikimi lowered her eyes, murmuring, "Yes, milady." She stared at her hands clasped in her lap, her fingers pressed so tightly against the flesh on her wrists that it was bright white with pressure. In her mind's eye she could see Momo and Mitori and the guards facing off with the powerful miko woman. She could also see the gentle woman's warm brown eyes when she gazed at her child. She could remember Kagome's voice shrilly calling out her name, asking for help…and she hadn't come. Nikimi's face burned, her hands wrung each other as if she was trying to squeeze moisture from fabric.

She moved hurriedly away, looking quickly for Taikokajin's red, formal kimono.

Garou stopped, his massive body sliding to a halt, suddenly cautious. Dust, stirred from Inuyasha's blasts with the Tetsusaiga and from Garou's massive paws, billowed out around his form. His tongue lolled, long and coming to a point, almost in the style of a reptile. His eyes gleamed with something that might have been suspicion or alarm—he was looking behind Inuyasha, his legs stiff.

Inuyasha clutched his sword a little more tightly, growling beneath his breath. "Stupid show off Sesshomaru…" he knew his older brother was likely behind him, standing at the edge of the clearing, his sword drawn proudly. He'd be showing off, silently trying to announce his brilliance and compare it to Inuyasha's incompetence. It was youth against age, full breed facing off with half breed.

And yet, to see Garou stop his charge, hesitating—Inuyasha was filled with a fast hope. It set his heart racing faster than the prospect of dying. If he lived he would see Kagome again. He would get to raise Koinu and see the births of more pups—his pups—to keep his firstborn company. Kagome's face loomed in his mind then, his own personal goddess, a deity that he lived to impress.

I'm going to live. He vowed, silently, readying the wind scar for another blow, whether it was useless or not.

"Wind Scar!" he shouted, whipping the sword at the ugly, dog-like demon before him. Light blazed, rippled, and scraped along the ground.

Garou howled; his animal voice strangely high pitched like a hyena's. The wind scar tore through him. Purplish blood spurted briefly, only to be closed by the blue glow of his soul stone. More hanyou souls were snuffed into oblivion, sacrificed to restore Garou's flesh.

"Would you die already!" the hanyou shouted, readying his sword for another stalling, but otherwise useless swing—and then a most hated, but familiar scent reached his nose.

Out of the corner of his right eye he sensed movement. There was a white streak and Inuyasha felt Tetsusaiga pulse in his hands as it recognized the presence and close proximity of its mate, the Tenseiga. Sesshomaru had finally come, taking his place beside his younger brother in preparation for battle.

"Little brother." Sesshomaru murmured, standing at Inuyasha's side. He leveled Tenseiga, letting the sword give off its bluish glow. It stood in his brother's single hand, parallel to Tetsusaiga. Sesshomaru didn't fail to notice the misty stirrings of air around the Tetsusaiga's blade, the first signs before Inuyasha let loose with yet another wind scar. "Why do you so feebly waste your effort?"

"Shut up!" the hanyou barked, irritated. His hands twisted on Tetsusaiga's hilt. "I don't need you. It was that damned Shimo-pup that went and got you!"

"Yes, because he is not the fool you are." He waved Tenseiga once in a swift, controlled arc, making a sweeping gesture toward where Garou was still standing. For the first time, Inuyasha realized that Garou had not taken his eyes off of Sesshomaru and Tenseiga. The ancient demon quailed before the blade, recognizing it as a sword that restored the natural order, a blade that could resurrect the dead or banish the undead.

Realization dawned on Inuyasha, and slowly, despite his older brother's arrogant presence, he smirked. Around Garou's neck the blue stone that the beast stored the hanyou souls that he fed on, the very things that kept him tied to the living world, glowed and pulsed. The magic that bound the souls within the Stone was the same that pulsed through Tenseiga. The Tenseiga could easily sever the bonds and destroy Garou's dark magic.

The ancient soul-eating demon had no defense against such a weapon, and he knew it. There was no way he could face such a weapon and escape with the hundreds, perhaps even thousands of hanyou souls he'd collected over the years. He would be left with nothing to sustain him, nothing to protect his own ancient soul from being wiped clear of the earth.

Faced with the eerie glow rising from Sesshomaru's Tenseiga, Garou knew he had no choice but to flee or risk vanishing forever from existence. If he died, all of his people's hopes and dreams died with him, disappearing into time forever.

Garou would flee, like a coward.

A gleam within the ancient beast's mud-brown eyes flickered once, and suddenly Sesshomaru and Inuyasha found themselves staring at a noxious cloud of what appeared to be dust. In reality it was something closer to miasma, a sort of energy form that demons could use when a swift escape was necessary for survival. Deep within the eddying swirls of the dark tempest Inuyasha and the others could make out the lingering blue glow of Garou's dark power and the suffering souls he kept constrained long after their unnatural, wrongful deaths.

"Dammit!" Inuyasha was the first to vocalize the group's collective realization aloud. "He's gonna run away!" Tetsuseiga's blade wisped with tendrils of energy, fully prepared for another lash of the wind scar, but Sesshomaru was faster.

In a flicker of whitish movement, a mere blue to Inuyasha, Sesshomaru had leapt forward, slashing with his single arm in a wide circular thrust. Though the blow was dealt seemingly to nothing but air, the motion sent out arcs of bright, shining energy that hurtled toward the foul shroud of dark dust. The Tenseiga's blade glowed eerily, pulsing with the same rhythm as the deep, iridescent glow within the noxious cloud of Garou's miasma.

As the bolts of energy from Tenseiga reached Garou's cloud and sliced into and through it, there was a brief, blinding flash, and then a terrible, high inhuman shriek pierced the air. The sound rose octaves high and then rolled back down the scale, every note managing to tear at all four of the listener's eardrums agonizingly. It cackled and cracked, screeched and keened, like nails scratching over chalkboard.

Sesshomaru paused where he stood, the foremost of Garou's opponents, frozen by the sound. His face was lightly twisted in a scowl, the corners of his lips tweaked and curled with a mixture of disdain and his own torment. He held Tenseiga drawn and ready, but the bright blue glow around the blade dissipated slightly. His golden eyes remained stoic and calm as he waited, tensely, for the battle between Tenseiga's powers, and Garou's to finish and reveal the victor on its own.

Behind him Inuyasha fell, cursing loudly and in the foulest language he knew. Tetsusaiga rested on the ground, the swirls of the wind scar completely forgotten and gone from it as the hanyou cringed, trying to flatten his white ears atop his head. Tsukiyume writhed on the ground beside her blearily recovering brother; both of them were gasping at the tortuous noise and struggling to cover their ears.

Growling, though the sound was impossible to hear past the screeching, Inuyasha gave in, dropping Tetsusaiga and using his hands to cover his ears instead. He squinted at his brother through one angry amber eye. "Fucking hell—just kill it!"

The sound stopped abruptly, fading away into the sky, into the calm waters of the lake, into the innocent tawny sands of the beach. Inuyasha blinked only once and retook his fighting stance, wrenching up Tetsusaiga out of the ground. Behind him he heard the sands shift as Shimofuri rose to his feet finally, breathing roughly. He could also hear the hanyou girl sniffle as she too recovered.

Where the dark cloud of miasma had once pulsed, swirling as it prepared to whisk Garou away—much as Naraku had for uncountable years done just the same to escape Inuyasha's attacks—now there stood no more than a man once more. Naked, with skin gray like a corpse's and covered in thick, wiry brown hair, he was caught between his attempt at a human form and an animal form. Garou's snout was longer, his teeth bigger than they should've been in his mouth. His hands and legs were more like paws, rounded and with short fingers and rounded, stubby toes.

But his dirt-brown eyes were the same, and they burned with a desperate, feverish hatred—and fear. Around his neck the stone that had once glowed so brightly and powerfully with its dark power, now was nothing more than a dull, bluish tinted rock. The Tenseiga's magic had won and severed Garou's tie to the hanyou souls that could sustain him.

Sesshomaru abruptly ended the silent stare down between the all the opponents by sheathing Tenseiga in a slow, ritualistic movement. "You do not belong here." He spoke quietly toward Garou, seemingly uncaring whether or not the beast heard his words, "I suggest you do the honorable thing and take your own life. But no matter your decision, Old One, my task is done here."

Proudly, Sesshomaru turned on one foot and strode unblinkingly to his bristling, confused hanyou brother. "Inuyasha—you will not kill that beast."

"The hell I won't!" he lifted Tetsusaiga and turned murderous eyes on Garou's seemingly stricken, half-human form. The ancient demon's face was set in an ugly mask of snarling hatred—but Inuyasha could easily scent the wind from the stinking beast, and it was rank with fear. He hesitated only a moment, which was long enough for Sesshomaru to speak again.

"Inuyasha, it is not for you to kill."

"What the—" the hanyou's blustering words were cut short by a small, female voice that arose from behind him.

"He is mine."

Shouldering Shimofuri out of the way slightly, Tsukiyume took a position beside Inuyasha, her orange-rimmed brown eyes solemn. Uncertainly, Inuyasha risked a glance between Garou, who was still motionless for the moment recovering his breath, and Shimofuri and Sesshomaru. He felt a small tremor of doubt pass through him when he noted that Sesshomaru had already vanished. Shimofuri, meanwhile, was not looking at him at all, but rather had begun loosening the sash that kept his sword bound to his waist.

With a sudden shrieking howl, Garou drew Inuyasha's attention again. The demon was once again a dog-like beast, with a boxy head, small pointed ears, beady eyes and a long, stiff tail. It charged headlong at them, foamy slather gushing from its jaws. Huge canine teeth gleamed white against its corpse-like gray skin, stood out sharply against the sparse, wiry brown hair.

The beast spoke again in the same ugly whisper that made the fine hairs all over Inuyasha's body stand on edge. "I will kill you, Inuyasha! The other hanyous were nothing but useless meat! But with your death we will live again! The time of the inu youkai is finished!"

"Get real asshole!" snarling, Inuyasha let loose another wind scar to try and deflect the charging demon before pivoting swiftly on his feet. Seconds after landing he heard the beast's horrible screeching wails and scented new blood in the clearing.

But as the dust cleared the hanyou's ears fell backward with distress. The wind scar had only managed to heavily injure the demon. Garou limped weakly, his purple tongue lolling, the slather dribbling from his mouth full of brownish blood. Deep gashes that nearly cut the beast in thirds coursed his body, spurting blood. Only in the beast's beady eyes did there still loom a malice, a powerful ill-will.

Garou pinned his eyes on Inuyasha, speaking raggedly through a muzzle never made in the first place for human words but made even clumsier with injury and pain. "You may destroy my body, but never my soul." His eyes narrowed, seeming to pin Inuyasha in place, "I have your miko's soul bound to me, hanyou. When I die she will become my host—and perhaps through her the whelp too. I will use them to destroy you. Submit to me now, or I will use what you love most to ruin you…"

Inuyasha's breath choked, wrath and rage and fury faltered suddenly. He spotted Tsukiyume and Shimofuri moving behind Garou, caught the glint of Ribikou's blade as it was drawn not by the youkai Shimofuri but by Tsukiyume the hanyou. The voices carried to him, but the horror that stifled his breath caught in his lungs, leaving him powerless. He stared once more at Garou's dark, treacherous eyes, saw them dulling over as death drew near.

From behind Garou, Tsukiyume leapt forward, much as Inuyasha might've done, and plunged the long, thin length of Shimofuri's Ribikou into the demon's haunches. Fresh blood spurted, hot to the chilly spring air. The massive corded muscles in Garou's legs quivered, giving way and failing. With one short wailing cry, the beast collapsed.

The sharp, challenging gleam in Garou's beady eyes never once faltered, his stare never left Inuyasha as he fell and finally succumbed.

"My lady…?" Nikimi slid open the door to Kagome's room cautiously, her eyes wide and frightened. "Lady Inuyasha?"

From deeper within the room, deep throated sounds of pain came, as well as a tiny child's whimpering.

Slowly, Nikimi stepped into the dark room, sliding window screens open with a clatter and pushing aside the outer shutters. Light flooded the room and revealed a futon layered with dark furs and blankets heaped high over a very pale young woman. A bedpan lied beside it, reeking of stomach acids.

Uncertainty warred within Nikimi as she caught sight of a small pair of bluish eyes peeking out from underneath the thick layers of furs. The baby whimpered once and then withdrew, like a frightened mouse, hiding from her view.

Taikokajin wanted the pup, but Nikimi was reluctant to fly so blindly in the face of all that was right just because her mistress ordered it. And yet, when the dangers were weighed considering which was more likely to harm her at the moment—sickened miko woman or enraged demon woman—Nikimi could only see one outcome that would preserve her own skin easily…

She swallowed hard, and stepped forward to the futon in a rush, prostrating herself before it. "My lady, my lady please wake up."

The woman underneath her covers moaned, blinking sharply against the light. When she turned, looking toward Nikimi, her eyes were wide and unfocused, as if she couldn't really see. She opened her lips to speak, but the only word that escaped was a strangled cry for help from her mate and husband.

"…Inuyasha?"

"No, my lady, your husband is still absent on his journey with Shishi-sama."

Kagome's eyes fluttered shut once more, exhaustedly. She choked back either an emotion or simply more stomach acid before weakly gasping, "Water."

"Yes my lady," Nikimi bowed, pressing her forehead to the cold floor. Her heart pounded in her chest, her stomach twisted at the scent of sickness in the room. Taikokajin will kill me for disobedience with her fits for sure if she doesn't get the pup…but what if the miko can't even rise out of bed? What am I to do?

Again, out of the corner of her eye as she bowed, she noticed the small lump in the furs that moved and squeaked once, uncertainly. She knew what Taikokajin would want of her then. She'd order Nikimi to let the woman die, alone and uncared for. She'd order that Nikimi take the young pup away from the dying miko for its own good.

She rose from her bow and spoke again, more urgently, leaning closer to Kagome, "My lady, it is imperative that you rise. I will help you dress. As soon as Lady Taikokajin calls, you must be ready to answer her summons. Please my lady, you must rise…"

She stared at Kagome's face, at her breathing, waiting. The slow, even falls of the other woman's chest quickly revealed the worst to Nikimi. The miko was too sick to heed her or answer.

Forcing back her uncertainty, Nikimi reached hurriedly for the pup. Digging roughly, she found the child nestled comfortably over his mother's arm and side. He blinked, startled, when she found him. The small white ears atop his head tweaked and jerked once.

Nikimi glanced once again at the pup's mother, cautiously. Satisfied, yet still wholly uncomfortable, Nikimi reached in and took hold of the baby's middle, pulling on him. The baby's hands reflexively caught hold of his mother's clothing, the first, her skin, anything that would keep him where he was. He gave one short, preemptive screech, a warning call to both his mother and his attacker.

Nikimi's hands faltered. She let go of the baby, watching as he crawled back into the safety and darkness of the covers and his mother's familiar, welcoming scents. He made tiny sounds of distress that slowly grew more pained as his mother failed to respond. When the first wailing cry came, and probably the first real tears too, Nikimi's breath caught in her throat.

Kagome's eyes snapped open, she blinked confusedly. A few sluggish arm movements stilled Koinu's crying.

She didn't notice the furtive, swift movements of Nikimi's speedy exit and disappearance.

Yep...that's it guys. It's SOOO late right now that this is all I'm leaving you...feel free to review though! I answer, I promise!