*Here it is, the final end! I hope it is satisfactory. Once again, thank you all so much for your very kind reviews - I am incredibly flattered that this many people actually read my writing, and enjoyed doing so. I'm not sure how many other stories I will be able to think up, but I'm glad I was able to bring this one to life.
This ending is what's known as "bitter-sweet." Some people don't like those endings, but this was the only one that seemed to "fit" after I tried several others.
As a side note, I am considering putting up more explicit versions of the lemons in this story on another website. FFNET would certainly not approve of my original lemons, so I had to tone them down. If I do decide to do so, I will post an update in this epilogue saying so.
Thank you all again, this has been a great deal of fun! The ending isn't exactly mega-happy, but somewhat realistic. I hope you approve :D
Sesshomaru stood quietly, looking at the two small stones at the edge of the circle of sakura trees in the gardens of the Western Palace, as he had on this day every past hundred years. It was important to him, because he knew it would be important to her.
He remembered the good things - their many years together, travelling the wilderness, enjoying each other's companionship; their long, passionate nights in the forests. The light in her eyes as she spent her days as she had always dreamed.
She had lived so much longer than most humans - more than a hundred years - yet to him, it seemed their time was so very short. He had always hoped to find a way to keep her alive - but she resisted him.
"No, Sesshomaru-sama," he remembered her saying, when he mentioned a desire to keep her immortal. She had aged so gracefully - old woman though she was, she hardly looked it, or felt it, even at the very end. "I am not meant to live forever - after all, this is my fourth life. I'm not a fox-spirit, I'm human. I will have to leave you someday." She smiled gently, though he could tell that she was afraid - not for herself, but for him.
She had left him so suddenly - yet her death did not leave him with the frantic yearning he had felt all of the other times she had died. Somehow, this time around, it seemed... right.
He would never forget the last thing she said to him, the night before she left him in her sleep. "I know my time is coming." She said it matter-of-factly, and he just looked at her.
"Don't say that."
She smiled gently. "You know it's true, Sesshomaru-sama. And I have something I request of you. Bury me next to Inuyuki."
He looked at her searchingly. He had never heard her say that name; they both knew what had happened those many years ago, but neither had the desire to say anything about it. They weren't quite sure why, but it seemed that they both knew that nothing needed to be said. Her sudden request was a surprise.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because she is the reason I have been able to give my life to you. We were bound together by karma." She smiled gently and laid her head back, falling asleep and never waking.
By that point in his life, he was far and away the most powerful youkai in the entire land - and he had many vassals and subjects. His power was exactly what he had once dreamed it would be - and he would give it all up in a second if he could have been mortal with her. But before she left, she had admonished him to continue living - not for her, but for their future.
Rising, he decided that it was time to return to his duties at the palace. Once he reached the edge of the gardens, he saw that the very future Rin wished him to protect was walking to her resting place to remember her as well.
One was a tall, slender young girl with bright green eyes, white hair, and a serious expression. She wore a familiar blue necklace with a blue teardrop stone. The other was a young, shaggy black dog who was constantly in a transformed state, except for the night of the full moon, much like his uncle Inuyasha. During that time, he was human - and much like his mother, never stopped talking while he had the chance, since he was mute most of the time.
Sesshomaru rarely showed it, but these two beings were the light of his life - his last living connection to his beloved, and the future of his line.
He had surprised the entire court when he had proclaimed Rin his one and only mate. They all knew that he doted on her; yet they fully expected him to continue his bloodline through a highly-bred youkai female. They were flabbergasted when he gave the announcement that Rin would also retain all the rights normally granted to the wife of a great Daiyoukai - the right to name his children being one of them. He had nearly smiled with pleasure when his mother heard the names of her grandchildren for the first time - her dislike of the common names Rin had picked was evident. He found it strange, especially considering that she herself broke tradition by not giving him a name beginning with "Inu."
However, all at court eventually grew used to the fact that both of the children were hanyou, likely because there were two of them. Sesshomaru never told Rin, but she must have been unusually fertile, as youkai seed was not very compatible with human females. Hanyou like Inuyasha and Jinenji were rare indeed; two hanyou from the same human female were unheard of. Even among youkai, children did not happen frequently.
"Yuriko. Masayuki." As he spoke their names, they acknowledged him with a nod.
"Father," said Yuriko, "We wish to go visit Mother now. Is that acceptable to you?" She and Masayuki looked at him somewhat tentatively; they knew that this was a day he preferred to be alone.
"Yes," he answered simply. As he turned to walk away, Yuriko said, "Father, just one more thing." Once his eyes met hers, she said, "Jakken wished me to tell you that..." she trailed off, and her eyes glazed over. Clearly, she was "seeing" something. Her eyes closed.
Then they snapped open.
"Father! Quickly, return to mother's grave! And take this with you!" She held out the beautiful blue necklace that had belonged first to Inuyuki, then her mother.
Sesshomaru was preoccupied; he had no patience for Yuriko and her usual mind-tricks. She was a very, very strong clairvoyant - and so far, she had predicted earthquakes, the fall of human regimes, and various other events with perfect precision. Her predictions (and suggestions) couldn't be taken lightly. Sometimes, her ability to read even him made Sesshomaru vaguely annoyed with her powers. She knew this and exploited it to her advantage - his daughter through and through.
He gave her a long look. Slowly, he put his fingers around the necklace and picked it up, gently. Somehow, touching it made memories flash before his eyes.
He heard Yuriko gasp, and Masayuki bark, both at the same moment. Looking up, he could see why.
Before them stood two faint, ghostly figures. One was a human woman - young, in the very prime of her existence, with gorgeous long black hair, wild-looking eyes, and an affectionate smile. His beloved Rin.
The other was an exquisitely beautiful youkai, with hair the color of a raven's wing, longer even than Rin's, and twisted into beautiful braids, looped about her head. The remainder cascaded down her white shoulders,which were covered by a beautiful, old-fashioned seven layer kimono. Her eyes were blue as the stone necklace; and her demeanor was calm and kind. His beloved Inuyuki.
He could only stare at them, nonplussed.
The two of them looked at one another and smiled.
"He hasn't changed." Rin giggled.
"No, he hasn't," Inuyuki replied. "But would you expect anything less?"
"Of course not," Rin said, looking him in the eye. "My lord, we haven't much time. We have come back to tell you that we finally found a way to separate ourselves and go to the Underworld."
"Yes," Inuyuki added. "As I'm sure you guessed, I bound myself to Rin in order to grant her a longer life." She gave him a soft, meaningful look with her eyes.
"I knew," he said, at long last. He still seemed impassive, but anyone who knew him saw that he had been moved deeply.
"Rin finally figured out, on the last night of her life, how to take the power I had left in the necklace to unbind us. Unfortunately, she died before it happened. However, someone else figured it out." She looked to her side, at Yuriko.
"So that was what it meant," Yuriko said mysteriously.
"Yes, it is," Inuyuki said, while looking with both fondness and sadness at the daughter that might have been hers. Nothing else needed to be said.
"Mother," Yuriko said, since her father wasn't responding, "I miss you. Will we ever meet again?" As she said it, human tears filled her eyes. She might be somewhat stoic like her father, but she had human blood in her as well. Her brother Masayuki wagged his tail, and whined. He wished to run up to his mother, but he wasn't stupid enough to do something like that when it might break the spell.
"Maybe we will, my daughter. Maybe we won't. That will be the decision of the guardian of the Underworld." Yuriko had known this; yet she had hoped that perhaps Rin would be one of the lucky ones who was reincarnated immediately. Sighing, she looked at her father.
He stood straight and elegant as always, but she could almost see a weight upon him. His sadness. Much as he cared for his children, he would give anything he had in order to go to the Underworld with them, and Yuriko knew it. But it was not his destiny.
The two of them looked even more transparent than they had the moment before; the spell was fading quickly.
"Sesshomaru-sama," they said, simultaneously, "Thank you. We love you." They gave him a long gaze, and turned to walk away. Then the unthinkable happened.
"I love you both, as well." It was all he said, but it was far more than he had ever said during their lifetimes. With Sesshomaru, they knew that emotional expression was almost impossible. They had loved him anyway, and had been confident in his love for them. To have him say it aloud, in front of his children, no less, was more than they had ever dreamed.
They turned back to look at him, love and thankfulness in their eyes. Then, they looked at one another, slowly clasped their hands together, and walked away, as friends might. As they did, they disappeared entirely.
Yuriko had tears running down her cheeks. Masayuki howled, since he had no other way of communicating. His sister, who could read his thoughts, knew that the hearbreak he had felt at the death of his beloved mother was reawakened anew. Masayuki had been especially close to Rin.
Sesshomaru simply stood, and looked ahead to where they had gone. He knew why they had come back - to remind him that though they were parted, his life must continue. Not simply for the sake of his children, but for his own. Confronting human fragility had made him stronger, and better. He no longer slaughtered human villages mercilessly as he had before he knew Rin. He was able to see beauty in things other than power and strength. Inuyuki's and Rin's deaths had made him even more powerful than Bakusaiga.
However, it still didn't mean he would choose to say such things aloud. He looked at his children severely.
"Yuriko. Masayuki. Stop that noise. You are old enough to stay composed."
Looking up, they immediately calmed themselves. Masayuki hung his head, Yuriko dried her eyes.
"I expect to see you this evening and report whatever it was Jakken told you," he told Yuriko.
"Yes, Father," she replied, and the two of them slowly walked away, toward the gardens.
Sesshomaru walked toward the Palace, with the necklace in his hand. He looked at it, feeling the braid of Inuyuki's hair that held the stone. As he looked up, he saw two blackbirds flying toward the heavens.
He smiled, ever so slightly.