Fallen by DawnFire_ice

Chapter 1 (revised)

Blanket disclaimer for this and all chapters of Fallen: I do not own any of the characters from Inuyasha. That right belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. My thanks for such wonderful characters for me to torment.

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This is Chapter one now fully revised and fleshed out from the original Enjoy!

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"Hey Sis, where did demons come from?"

It was such an innocent question. Deceptively innocent. The young woman stared at the scroll that her unknowing Grandfather had produced from one of the storehouses. He had once told her that it held the answer when she had asked the same innocent question ten years earlier. She had been raised knowing about, but never touching the supernatural. Though on occasion it did touch her though she was blissfully unaware of it. Until that fateful day when she turned fifteen at least.

Kagome sighed and poked at the not so innocent roll of aged yellow parchment with her index finger. Oh sure she was curious, but experience had shown her that some answers are better left unknown. She fingered the physical truth of that statement absently with the fingers of her left hand. The smooth cool surface of the shikon no tama rested peacefully subdued against her neck. It had taken a full two years to get it back and without being able to think of a pure enough wish it remained as a "weight" around the young woman's neck.

Yawning lightly Kagome pushed her self back from her desk and looked around her bedroom. At one time this had been her haven, her escape, now it was more a prison. Albeit of her own making but still a prison. She could go back any time she chose, but going back meant facing everything.

The last battle with Narku had been disastrous. The battle had happened with out warning. One moment the pack had been setting up camp for the night and the next was complete pandemonium. There had been no warning. After everything, Inuyasha would say that Naraku had hidden his presence until the last second. Kagome had sensed the jewel but only in time to shout in warning for Miroku to act. In trying to shield Sango from the first wave of Naraku's tentacles, neither Miroku or Sango even had a chance to attack. The same tentacle pierced through both of them, they died together. The rest of the battle happened in a matter of moments. In her grief and loss Kagome's power welled up and surrounded Naraku in a thick blanket of purification.

Purifying Naraku had an unexpected effect on the hanyou. Oddly it made him completely human. Inuyasha's final attack, unleashed at the same time as he was purified had paralyzed him. Though he'd been such a thorn in the side, he was harmless now so Kagome could not find it in her heart to kill him. But leaving him to his own devices wasn't something that anyone was comfortable with either. In the spur of the moment Kagome came up with a plan, she would take Naraku to her time and place him in the care of a mental institution. There he would be kept where he could no longer do any damage to anyone.

Needless to say neither Inuyasha or Koga had been happy with her idea. Inuyasha had been the most vocal about not getting to kill the bastard. But Koga had not been far behind. In fact they harangued for hours before Kagome was able to convince them that forcing him to live was far better than letting him die. Especially in the condition he was in. With his body warded and sealed Naraku would never regenerate his youki and the constant flow of sedatives she was certain that the asylum would use on someone like Naraku, would keep him just shy of consciousness. Kagome had no doubts though that if Sesshomaru had been there, she'd have lost the argument. though more likely there wouldn't have been a reason to argue to begin with. No he would have just killed Naraku and most likely her too for suggesting such a thing.

However, Kagome's avoidance of the Sengoku Jidai was far more personal than all that. It came from the fact that Kikyo was dead. Yes, the once dead priestess had finally been laid back to rest, her ashes scattered to the winds as they should have been years before so that she could never be revived. Although Kikyo was now at peace, Inuyasha had been a wreck. Kagome had done everything she could to help him through his grief. But Kagome knew that there is a fine line between comfort and replacement.

At first Kagome had been elated to finally be in Inuyasha's arms while he held her and ran his fingers lovingly through her hair, and then he'd kissed her...

Kagome had expected many things of her first real kiss, hearing the name of his dead lover wasn't one of them. Her mind had cleared from her contented haze in record time. But as her anger began to rise so too did her tears and the furious exit she was going to make turned in to her sobbing brokenly at his feet. He tried to smooth it over saying that he was sorry. That he hadn't been thinking, but that was the problem. He hadn't been thinking of Kagome he'd been thinking of Kikyo as always. It took all of one minute to decide, Kagome was done. Done with all of it. Done with the drama, done with the heartache. Done with Inuyasha. Done with love.

Standing quickly to stop her errant thoughts, her hip bumped the edge of her desk and consequently the scroll, knocking the ancient parchment to the floor. "Argh!" she growled with annoyance as she knelt and began re-roll the small portion of document that had been exposed, still trying to keep her eyes from scanning the words. She really didn't want to know. Kagome froze as her eyes caught a small phrase and held it, though for the life of her she couldn't figure out why it was there or why it caught her interest. "Only with pure light and darkness together can they be forgiven..." It was written at the top of the scroll in a hurried script as though urgently penned for some purpose that she couldn't fathom. The dark ink looked brown or like...Kagome swallowed as she touched the words realizing in horror the truth. "Blood. Someone wrote this in blood?"

Closing her eyes she took a deep breath her stomach twisting painfully in worry. Slowly she unrolled the scroll enough to reveal a small group of elegant script:

Bound together time and space

Light and Darkness know thy place

Be drawn to my side

There forever to stay

though as different as night and day

Kagome frowned as she silently re-read the lines again. 'That's strange.' she thought as she tried to unroll the scroll further. The parchment took on a vibrant red light and began to grow hot. With a yelp Kagome dropped it when it lightly burned her fingertips almost in reprimand. The glow receded and she poked at the scroll with worried eyes. "Maybe I shouldn't open it here?" she wondered thoughtfully suddenly feeling an overwhelming urge to go to the Sengoku Jidai. Absently she packed her new backpack with supplies and portable food stuffs from her old yellow pack. Not certain of why she was packing at all. Why was she preparing to leave? Was she a glutton for punishment?

She sighed and began to remove the things she'd packed, rethinking her departure, the scroll lit again with the red light and began to smoke lightly on the carpet. Kagome groaned looking down at the irritating document that was seeming to be throwing a tantrum. "Alright, I'll go." she said tersely. "Don't even think about starting a fire in my bag." The scroll pulsed and went quiet. Kagome fixed it with a glare, "Great now I'm talking to it". With a huff she scooped it up from the floor and stuffed it in to her bag along with the things she'd removed.

With a shouted farewell over her shoulder, she darted out the door and and fairly ran to the well, her heart racing with trepidation. She skidded to a stop at the edge of the well and looked into the strange darkness. Was she really going to go through with this, all because of a scroll? Was it worth seeing Inuyasha again? He was probably too wrapped up in his thoughts of her to even notice that Kagome was gone. He hadn't followed her to the well and he hadn't come for her. Even after a month she hadn't seen him. It was clear as crystal to her. He didn't want her. That was fine, she didn't want to be a replacement.

As she hesitated she began to feel a malevolent energy coming from her back pack and it was growing impatient. She wanted to dig out the scroll and have a nice little bonfire. Yes that would be fitting for a pushy temperamental scroll. But instead she glared behind her and sighed. "Fine. But I'm just taking you to Keade and then I'm coming back. I refuse to stay." she grumbled. Slowly she swung her legs over the edge and took a deep breath mumbling about stupid pushy magic inanimate objects as she dropped in to the waiting magic below.

She was still grumbling as she heaved her self out of the well on the other side and moved to climb out. A conveniently catchy vine caught her other foot sending her sprawling head first in to the grass. Her bag slipped over her head pinning her uncomfortably for a moment until she righted herself. As she pushed the bag back off her head she noticed the scroll lying oh so innocently unrolled to the spot where the five lines of elegant script were written. The air faintly trembling with anticipation around the scroll. Kagome frowned with a growing sense of wariness. She just knew that the scroll was going to be trouble.

The ink sparkled in the sunlight and Kagome paused. "You want me to read this?" she asked the scroll feeling very stupid talking to inanimate objects. The scroll pulsed once, the anticipation thickening. Kagome shook her head. "I must be out of my mind" she muttered as she picked up the scroll and took a breath...

"Bound together time and space" She began as some type of unfamiliar energy began to gather in front of her. "Light and Darkness know thy place" Kagome's eyes went wide as the energy wrapped around her and pulsed. "Be drawn to my side, there forever to stay." Her mouth felt dry as she felt power rising up around her sending involuntary shudders though her body. She gasped out the last line as the air was torn from her lungs "though as different as night and day". Closing her eyes as dizziness assaulted her, she felt a tingle race up her spine. Youkai. She felt a sick feeling of dread pool in her stomach as she recognized the strength of the particular youki swirling around her and who it belonged to.

Slowly Kagome opened her eyes and then quickly shut them again. She groaned softly cursing whom ever of the kami's thought this was funny. A growl interrupted her mental tirade and her eyes flew open again. Slowly her gaze drifted upwards from his bare feet praying for a miracle. The silk clung wetly to his body like a second skin and his knee length silver hair hung heavily streaming water down his back. His proud magenta markings stood out against the paleness of his alabaster skin at his wrists, ankles and hips. Flushing hotly, her gaze flashed up to his and then she wished it hadn't. His topaz eyes burned with indignant rage above the twin magenta markings on both of his regal cheeks and below the indigo crescent moon marking of his heritage, on his brow. The longer she stared the more fury gathered in his eyes. Finally loosing his patience he demanded,

"Why have you summoned this Sesshomaru?"