Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original ideas and characters in this and my other various fics. Thank you very much to all of you for reading and please review because I love to hear from you. Thanks again and have a great day.
Note: Planning to do another explanation chapter soon so review with your questions and even who you'd like to MC lol.
What Will Happen Next?
"Go not evil step grandmother!" Dare called out, not really sure what else to say. "I can call her that right?"
Shrugging Aiden was too busy watching what was going on around them. From where he was standing that was way more important then whether or not Dare could call Uncle Inu yasha's mother his step grandmother.
"Wow, no wonder Uncle Sesshoumaru can be so messed sometimes. If that was my mother I'd be plenty messed up too." Mika muttered as she watched the two women, their grandmothers talk some serious trash. "My grandmother seriously rocks though."
"Besides that you're already messed up enough as it is already." Ren pointed out, dodging the elbow she shot in his direction just barely.
"Shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you." Mika threatened with a dark look in his direction. Oh the little wolf boy was asking for it. She was about ready to give it to him too "And then I'll MESS YOU up good."
"Not if I do it first."
"Children, children. Now isn't the time for that." Shippou reminded then with his best impression of his sister Hotaru. "Right now I think we should be busy worrying about losing this fight, not about who's going to shut who's mouth."
Standing, facing each other the two mothers faces off, dark clouds surround Sesshoumaru's mother while Inu yasha's was bathed in bright white light. Both raising their hands beams of light, one light and the other dark hurled at the other, the two beams meeting. Both women had to dig in their heels but it was obvious that Inu yasha's mother's beam was stronger, or at least it was until Naraku appeared behind her and setting his hand over hers added his power to hers, sending Inu yasha's mother's reeling backwards. Falling against her son's chest Inu yasha found her hand enveloped with her son's, Inu yasha adding his power and strength to hers to even things up though it was apparent that it wasn't quite enough either. They needed more power.
Watching Sesshoumaru felt a clutch in his stomach, a knowledge of what he had to do. He knew, deep inside that he was the third piece, the piece that would change the tides of this but that would mean joining sides with "her", someone he'd hated as long as he'd known of her existence. He had been able to forgive his brother since Inu yasha had been as innocent as he but that woman, that woman was not. She'd been an adult who had destroyed his life for her own pleasures, for her own needs. Whatever she'd said, she had to have realized what harm getting involved with his father would cause. She hadn't valued the well being of a child over the pleasure of the company of a demon lord that could never, should never have been hers. But on the other hand if he didn't help, if he didn't stand with them then they wouldn't proceed in all likelihood. More importantly he wouldn't get his baby girl back or even his idiot nephew. They needed him to do this. Grinching his teeth Sesshoumaru surprised everyone as he walked forward and moving to the one's other side set his own clawed hand on top of theirs, the beam of light they were producing immediately going a blinding brilliant light, doubling in size. It didn't matter though. As soon as his hand had touch theirs his mother had stopped generating her beam, the light beam going straight through her so that she disappeared in front of their eyes along with Naraku.
"Late as usual, Sesshoumaru." Inu yasha said with a faint smirk as he watched his brother's hand retreat like it had been burned.
"In need of rescuing as always, Inu yasha." Sesshoumaru replied as he turned his back on both of them and walked back over to his family, ignoring the hand Inu yasha's mother stretched out in his direction.
Knowing the sacrifice his father had just made, what it had to have costed his father to lend his aid there Dare simply left Aiden's side and moved to stand beside his father, their shoulders brushing with neither saying a word. They didn't need to.
"You have..passed the first test." Inu yasha's mother said with a smile, her coming up to stroke her son's face as a door of light appeared behind her. "Go through the door behind me and onto the next challenge. There will be some small obstacles to the next challenge but I have no doubts that you are all up to it."
"It's..good to see you, mother." Inu yasha said as he nuzzled his face against her hand, even as it began to fade away.
"I love you, Inu yasha and I'm very, very proud of the man you have become." Izayoi said softly before looking over her son's shoulder at Sesshoumaru. "The same goes for you, Sesshoumaru, whether you can accept that or not. Now I must go, my time here has ended. Mika, as a parting word I will tell you in the next task you will be asked to think beyond what your mind and heart tells you. Simply do what you think is right, what you know to be right. Good bye..and good luck." Fading away in moments the only light was the door.
"Well that shouldn't be hard for you, Mika." Shippou said as he set a hand on Mika's head to ruffle her hair. "Sounds like you just have to go with your instincts the way you always do."'
"We should get out of here, in case there's an exit time limit." Hermione pointed out as she watched Inu yasha curiously, who was staring off into the space his mother had occupied. She couldn't imagine life without her mother now and Inu yasha had lost her a long time ago. Was it a gift to see her now or just another wound opened?
"Move out." Sesshoumaru commanded and following orders everyone started forward, Mika linking arms with her father to gently herd him through the exit. As soon as they exited Inu yasha began to fade and then in his place another figure began to appear until it was Sora standing in his place, blinking and looking around in confusion as her eyes took in their presence's in puzzlement. "Sora." Sesshoumaru breathed, skirting around the others and made his way to his daughter, standing in front of her before roughly pulling her into his arms.
"Father? Father!" Sora exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his waist, breathing in his scent as she revealed in the fact that somehow she was back. This wasn't simply the feared demon Lord of the West, this was her father.
"Wahooo! Sora!" Dare whooped, rushing over too so that he and his father made a Sora sandwich while everyone else gathered around to give her hugs and welcome backs once her father and brother would let her go though they remained on either side of her, as though to prevent her from disappearing.
Meanwhile
"Where the hell did she go?" Sesshoumaru demanded as he looked around him. One minute his daughter had been talking to Sango about the changes to her village and the next she'd been gone in the blink of an eye.
"Is it possible that Lady Sora was transported back to her own time?" Miyoga suggested from Inu yasha's shoulder where he'd been sitting since Inu yasha had tired of trying to flick him off.
"If that was the case you'd think they'd have transported Andrea and I too though." Kyou said with a worried look as he scanned the horizon like she could suddenly appear if he just looked hard enough. "But as far as I know Ferio doesn't have this sort of power which is something at least."
"How are we going to find her? If only we were still back at that Treyz guy's holding. His wife could probably tell us where she was." Kagome said with a frown, worried about her niece. What could have happen to her?
"Well I could just take us back to the holding." Andrea pointed out reasonably.
"What do you mean you can take us back there?" Kyou demanded to know. "You can only teleport to places where you know the layout perfectly and have left behind one of those silver thingies."
"Yes and at Lady Sora's request I did both since we both agreed that Lady Tomoyo might be a valuable resource to tap later on in the future if we were to run into any trouble." Andrea said dryly, smirking in Kyou's direction.
"How would you do it? Transport all of us back there I mean?" Sango asked, the idea of being transported anywhere sounding a little weird and dangerous to her.
"All you'd have to do was put your hand on my shoulders or back. As long as you have physical contact with my body I can bring you with me. However any attempts to grope will result in a very painful penalty." Andrea said as she fixed Kyou with a hard look before giving Miroku the same treatment.
"I assure you that I would never do such a thing." Miroku said with a serene smile that wasn't fooling anyone. He was a lecherous pig after all and he never, ever passed up a chance to get a quick feel, especially if the girl was as attractive as Andrea.
"Like there's much to grope." Kyou muttered under his breath.
"Sit boy!" Andrea ordered and grinned when Kyou went down in a heap as ordered. "Dumb dog."
"Hey, how did you do that?" Inu yasha wanted to know. "He doesn't have one of these stupid necklaces." Inu yasha pointed out, tugging on his own that that sneaky witch Kaede had saddled him with.
"I did it through my mind, I don't require something so primitive as your necklace." Andrea explained as she absently rolled her shoulders. "So, shall we go?"
"Sounds like a plan to me." Rin said with a wide smile, the idea of being magically teleported somewhere very exciting.
"Is there a way for only some of us to go? It would make sense for some of us to stay behind in case she reappears." Kouga pointed out, not overly thrilled with the idea. Plus it seemed a waste to go all that way when they'd already traveled so far already.
"I've traveled this area before and know it well enough." Andrea said as she lifted a hand, a silver wand like object appearing there with a point tip. Grabbing it in her other hand Andrea held it then threw it into the ground, pointy tip down. "I can bring us back to this spot once we have concluded our business with the demon sheer."
The little obstacles between the first challenge and the second turned out to be a couple dozen pretty bad ass demons who took some doing to put down since they just didn't seem to want to stay down. Finally getting through they were a little tired, a little annoyed and rather dreading what was next. They followed the path and were facing what looked to be solid mountain wall when the voice from before came again. "You passed the first, now it is time for the second test to be faced. One at a time your name will be called and you will walk through this wall and into your individual task. This test will challenge the knowledge that is in your heart as well as your mind. You will enter into a world filled with the people both past and present that are a part of your life. You must find the one person in the group of many that can lead you from the darkness and into the light. Those who don't complete their task within the allotted time will be trapped within this world forever, doomed to wander while those who succeed will continue on to the next and final challenge."
"Well doesn't that sound just cheery." Dare said dryly, not quite sure what to think of this challenge. When Mina's name was called he looked over at his aunt in sympathy. "Good luck, I think you're going to need it."
"Piece of cake." Mina said saucily though there was a hint of uncertainty in her voice. She wasn't at all sure what to expect either. 'See all you guys on the other side." Mina added with a wink in her daughter's direction as she walked forward, lifting a hand against rock, only to find her hand and arm go straight through. "Well that's sorta cool."
"Good luck, mom!" Hermione called out as she waved, her mother disappearing into the rock face like a ghost until she was completely gone from sight. "She'll be okay, right, Aiden?" Hermione said weakly, looking over at Aiden for some confirmation.
"I'm sure she'll be fine."
"Sora?" Shippou said carefully, coming up to Sora now that Sesshoumaru was busy talking to Triton and Dare was busy helping Aiden reassure Hermione that her mother would be just fine. He'd managed a brief half hug and a welcome back but that was about it since she'd reappeared.
"Hmm?" Sora said as she turned her attention from the mountain to Shippou. It was weird to suddenly see him like this when she'd just gotten used to him in mini.
"I uhmm..I got this for you." Shippou said as he held up her necklace, the one that he'd found on the ground after her fight with Ferio. The one he'd given her.
"My necklace!" Sora exclaimed before flushing slightly at her tone of voice. Very unlike her as she carefully took the necklace back from him to examine it. The necklace was one of her most prized possession but she didn't want Shippou to know that, to figure out why it was so important to her. "You fixed the chain." She said softly, cupping it carefully in her hand like it might break if she wasn't careful. "Thank you, Shippou."
"No big deal." Shippou said with a shrug, looking down at his feet rather then at her. Something he seemed to have to do a lot more often lately.
"I appreciate it." Sora said as she carefully brushed her hair to one side before putting the necklace back on where it belonged. "I was...distressed when Ferio broke it and I thought I'd lost it for sure." Nearly jumping when she felt something brush against her leg Sora looked down to see Sonya nuzzling her leg, the cat's way of greeting her and welcoming her back. "Hello, Sonya. I missed you too." Sora said as she crouched down to give her brother's cat's ear a quick scratch.
"Next is Shippou, son of the fox demons Takashi and Rumiko of the line of Trest." Came the female voice again, interrupting anything else Shippou might have said. Apparently Mina's test was over though the voice said nothing as to whether she had passed or not. Likely to keep everyone on their toes and in suspense as to how difficult the test actually was.
"Guess that means me." Shippou said with a rueful smile as he looked down at Sora. Damn, he'd hoped to try to talk with her a little more, especially since after this test she would disappear again, back into the past. Their timing continued to suck, he thought ruefully. "I guess this is good bye again until we both get through."
"I'll expect to see you there waiting for me then." Sora said with a small smile as Shippou nodded in response before turning and heading in with a lot more confidence then he was feeling. Watching him go Sora sighed before sharing a knowing look with Sonya. "He better be there." She muttered under her breath. "He has to be."
Walking in Shippou found himself in utter darkness and then slowly he began to feel weird, a sense that something wasn't right. It was so dark though that he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face, much less what was going in around him. Then, as if someone had flipped a switch he found himself in the light with familiar faces and bodies towering over him. Giant forms of his friends and family, Shippou wandered, spinning around to look at them all then slowly stopping looked down at himself. it was his body all right but it wasn't one he'd been in for quite a number of years. not since the search for the Shikon Shards had he been this small. Shaking his head Shippou wasn't pleased to find himself in a kid's body but at the moment he didn't have time to stand there and be annoyed. He needed to find the one person who could get him out of here, one person in a sea of many, Shippou thought darkly. He'd caught glimpses of Sango and Miroku, Kaede and even Sesshoumaru but he knew, somehow that they weren't the ones he needed to find. Wiggling his way through the crowds he tried to find someone he thought was right but just couldn't seem to figure out what the criteria was supposed to be. What made someone the right person? Then it hit him, who he'd been looking for in the back of his mind before he'd even realized it. He was looking for the person who'd always been there for him, first as his friend and then as his mother. The person who he'd loved the longest and would do absolutely anything for. Elbowing aside someone Shippou cupped his hands in front of his mouth and at the top of his voice called out to her. "KAGOME!"