Exacting Change by AccidentalGoddess

Prologue: The Game Begins...

A/N: Welcome to my first full length S/K story! I've been planning this for a bit, but of course the hardest part is just sitting down and writting it. Ah well, we must all suffer for our art. 0.~ AAAnnnyyhooo...on with the prologue!

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. I do not own Kagome. I do not own Sesshomaru. I do not own Rumiko Takahashi's stories. I do not own the Hope Diamond. I do not own a McLarin. I do not own the world...yet.

Summery: They say the sins of the father are visited on the sons...but why in the world did they have to drag her into it? Someone is after revenge and somehow Kagome gets dragged right smack into the middle of it. Now they're stuck in a game no one knows the rules to with a plot devised by a madman. And somehow they have to bring it all to an end before Sesshomaru goes mad! (Rated R for now, but as this is plotted to be a long story the rating may change.)

(Oh, and if the html things I'm trying to do don't work...well, I blame the computers. Friggin' things taking over the world all the time... So, if it winds up looking funky, I'll do my best to fix it and beg for pointers!)

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Two pairs of eyes stared at the board lying before them taking in everything and nothing at once. Their concentration was so great that it could no longer be felt, it just was. At first glance it appeared to be a game board of some kind, perhaps something a little like chess. First glance would not be wrong. It was a game, a game older than time itself, a game that has been before there was. The board was vast and yet small in comparison to the game itself, existing everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It was complex. So much so that the rules could not be taught, they must be known. And yet there was nothing simpler. Contradiction at its truest form.

"The players appear to all be in place," the first voice said. It was a surprisingly light voice, considering all that was behind it. And if one listened closely one could hear the dry humor that seemed laced through it, as though every little irony it encountered amused it.

The eyes belonging to the voice that had not yet spoken flicked up briefly. They were not normal eyes, a shade that seemed most unnatural to the casual observer. Once again, the casual observer would not be wrong. There was nothing about those glowing, azure eyes that one would call normal, nor the one they belonged to. He was one of the rarest of all beings, one of the most powerful Guardians in existence. Even still, his eyes were nothing compared to the ones they gazed into.

His companions eyes held no pupil, iris, or white. Instead they were all black, blanketed with pinpricks of light shining from their depth. They were all the starry night sky, light within the dark, dark behind the light. And while he and his kind were rare, the owner of these celestial orbs was one of a kind.

The azure eyed one was the younger of the pair, though not by much. That is, if time meant anything to the two companions.

Finally, the azure eyes flicked down. "Indeed," a deep, smooth voice replied.

The other's brow crinkled slightly. "You are worried," the first voice said, sounding a little surprised even to his own ears.

"I always worry. It's my nature."

"I made your nature. I have never known you to worry so much about an outcome like this."

The other paused slightly. "An outcome has never mattered so much to me before."

A smile touched the eternal face of the first one, warm and yet hinting at that ironic amusement that seemed ever present. A hand reached out and settled on the other's shoulder. "You have done well."

"But is it enough?"

The first one sighed. "That is something that can never be known, not until the outcome presents itself."

"But what if it's not?"

"Then we move from there."

"But what if..."

"One night while I lay thinking here, some What-Ifs crawled inside my ear. They danced and partied all night long and sang their little 'What If' song."

The other paused at the interruption. "That was childish. You used to quote great philosophers, now you're quoting Shel Silverstein?"

"One of the greatest of them all."

The other rolled his strange eyes. His companion had a knack for the absurd. Appropriate, all things considered. "I'm being silly, aren't I?"

"Yes. You know as well as I do that they can only be placed, led to where they are. They must make the choices for themselves. But you have done the best you could with the tasks I gave you. And you have done very well, indeed."

The other sighed and stared down at the board, ignoring his companion's amused and starry gaze in favor of making sure everything was truly in place. Yes, things were arranged as best they could be. Now he would have to just sit and see how they played it. A slight smile touched his lips. If all went as he thought it would then those 'What-ifs' would be silenced forever.

Now, to roll the die...

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A/N: Yes, yes, I know it's a bit confusing and doesn't seem to make much sense...but it's not supposed to right now. I know, so comforting, isn't it? And yes, rather short, but I promise there will be lots, lots more!

Now, please excuse me. I find I must go trip and fall on the gorgeous guy that just walked by my window. Ja ne!