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Kagome groans and rolls onto her side, covering her face. Early morning sunlight trickles through her fingers. Cool sand shifts beneath her, scouring her skin and itching against her scalp. Her sleeping bag lies next to her virtually untouched. 

Crap. Why do I keep doing this? 

She flops onto her back and stares defiantly up at the sky and curses the gods, the demons, heaven, hell, and everything in between. 

Licking her cracking lips she looks over at the sleeping children; still asleep despite her tiny tantrum. In the four days they’ve been wandering the desert, the three bigs have gotten well acquainted with her temper. 

Shippo and Inuyasha slept right through her rolling off her sleeping bag and then stole her spot! The audacity, the disrespect. Both boys were using her sleeping bag as a pillow, and in Inuyasha’s case, was using her pillow to hide from the dawn. 

 Rin however woke up either before Kagome did or shortly after because her golden eyes met Kagome’s over the sleeping brothers, crinkling with laughter.

Baring her teeth in a feral grin Kagome lets a hint of the fox shine through. Rin shakes her head and picks at her claws. Two of which are still broken from the night before. Although her fingers look like they’ve fully healed. 

The oasis they found yesterday turning into a trap shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was, but they honestly hadn’t expected it at all. 

When a fox god who happens to be your father swoops into the shiro and scoops you and three of your children up and then deposits you into a random desert in a random land, you tend to be wary of everything. Thirst makes you throw caution to the wind, but mostly you just wander around and curse him, magic, and the horse he rode in on. 

For nearly a week they’ve been trying to survive and find out where and when they are while also attempting to get home. To no avail. Outside of the children her pack bonds have been utterly, terrifyingly cool. 

Teruo hadn’t said a word to her when he blew through her peaceful afternoon like a whirlwind. Kagome didn’t even know if Sesshomaru and the littles were at home or if they too had been transported far and away. 

This week was supposed to be a milestone for the pups, the first patrol of the Western Lands for the littles. A momentous marker of them growing up. They had plans. But no. Kagome is stuck in the middle of nowhere being attacked by strange demons that she can’t purify by touch alone, and struggling to survive. She couldn’t have been dropped into some lush paradise with crystal clear waters and thick foliage and hammocks and bite sized pieces of fruit. Oh no. 

“You can’t keep cursing Grandfather Fox.” Rin cut through Kagome’s woe-is-me monologue like a hot knife through butter. “I doubt he can hear you.”

“I can and I will.” Kagome sticks her tongue out like the mature adult she is. “He deserves every curse and discomfort I can send him, the turnip better hope I don’t get my hands on him before we get home because I’ll make myself a new shawl out of his pelt. Your father has his mokomoko, and I’ll have my fath- you know what? Nevermind, I heard how that was going.”

“Why do you have to be so loud?” Inuyasha snarls from under Kagome’s pillow.

“Hello Pot, have you met kettle?” Rin rolls her eyes skyward. “Nevermind, GRANDFATHER! I’m tired of this.” 

“Oh so now it’s okay to curse him? And you’re calling Inuyasha a pot?” 

“Listen, if I have to spend one more day mediating between any of you I’m going to become an only child.” 

“You’re mediating?” Kagome makes a show of looking around, “Since when? I for one would love to see some actual mediation.”

Inuyasha pins his ears and rolls his eyes before wandering to the other side of a sand dune to relieve himself.

“Excuse me?” Shippo shoots into the air like a startled cat and shifts with a muted pop. “I’ll have you know that I’ve done nothing to warrant my death.”

“You’re a witness. When I return home it will be a tragic story of how my brother and uncle-brother perished due to their own hubris. Woe.”

“Uncle-brother?!” Inuyasha shouts as he returns to camp. Shippo is cackling so hard he can barely stand. 

“Well, you are my uncle through my fathers side, and my brother through my mothers side. The title stands.”

“The title sits! Kagome!” Inuyasha points at Rin and stomps his foot. 

“Oh I’m Kagome today? Very well. Uncle-brother stands.”

“It's not my fault your wacky father turned me into a kid!”

“If only he’d turned you fully into a baby and not just partway.” Shippo mutters snidely. 

Inuyasha rounds on Shippo, flexing his claws, “You wanna say that again pipsqueak?” 

“I said,” Shippo begins in a singsong babytalk tone, “that your a baby and should-”

“That’s it.” Rin’s eyes bleed red, the moon on her forehead darkens to navy blue as her jaws expand. Yokai swirls around her as she grows into her true form. A dark brown inu, ten feet tall at the shoulder, and snarls at them. Acidic drool drips from her fangs turning the sand to glass. 

Shippo explodes into his true form, ruff up with green flames sparking around his feet and dripping from his maw. Both of his tails lash as he circles his sister. She’s nearly twice his size but he doesn’t back down.

“Fuck it.” Inuyasha shudders through his transformation. He takes longer to shift but he’s no less impressive than his niblings. Snowy white with triangular ears and a thick ruff, he’s the same size as Rin. 

“Inuyasha!” Kagome chastises him for swearing but not for joining the fight. Pick your battles and all that jazz. 

The demons circle each other, snapping and snarling, waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce. 

Kagome throws her hands up disgustedly and breaks down their campsite. Someone yelps. She doesn’t bother checking. 

The ground shakes and teeth snap together like a steel trap. Kagome shakes out her sleeping bag and folds it up. Dust and sand rain down and she snarls. The fighting pauses and moves further away. Unpacking her backpack she painstakingly shakes out every item and places it on top of her sleeping bag. When the pack is empty she tips it over and shakes it; violently. Imagining it's whoever threw sand over her in the first place. 

Something shiny falls out of the empty bag. Dropping into the sand with more weight than should be possible. Kagome freezes. She knows that kind of shine, that spherical shape, that unmistakable glow.

She crouches and sifts through the sand with her fingertips until they brush against a smooth round surface. She grinds her teeth and pulls a jewel out of the sand. 

“What, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck?” 

All fighting ceases. Three massive canine heads crowd over and around her as they try to see what she’s holding. Shippo shrinks back into his humanoid form and gently touches Kagome’s wrist. 

“Is that…?”

“Yes, but also, no.” 

“That’s helpful.” Rin snorts from Kagome’s other side, “but true. Hm. it's not the right color.”

“Nope.” Kagome offers the red jewel to Rin, who takes it gingerly. “I don’t think it's a Shikon, but I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“It feels like a Shikon.” Rin rolls the jewel in her hand, she’s only ever held the real Shikon jewel once, when she was still human.

“Give it here.” Inuyasha makes a grab for it but Rin dodges and sweeps his legs out from under him. 

“Manners.” She chides with a smirk and tosses her hair over her shoulder with a smug huff. 

“Never thought I’d miss being sat.” He murmurs under his breath. 

Kagome smothers a chortle and looks anywhere but at him. 

Rin tosses the jewel at Inuyasha as he stands, he reaches for it. A black blur rips between the teens, snatches the jewel in midair and flies away. 

“Shippo!” 

“On it!”

Shippo flows into an albatross and takes flight, chasing the crow across the skyline. 

“I can’t believe that happened again.” Inuyasha’s befuddlement makes Rin snort. He glares at her. 

“Why am I to be punished like this?” Kagome growls and drops her human form, shifting into a six tailed kitsune, her black coat shines blue in the sunlight. She bolts after Shippo. Rin and Inuyasha only a step behind her. 

Shippo lights up the pack bonds with anger and determination. Kagome sends strength back to him. He responds with wariness. 

Kagome runs flat out, belly scant inches above the dunes as she rockets over them. Being a demigod has a lot of perks but an Inu’s ability to fly isn’t one of them. Nor is the shapeshifting prowess of true kitsune. She can be human, kitsune, inu, tiger, or wolf. But only one at a time and she can’t do everything the natural demons can. 

Sand gives way to soil then grass, then shrubs and stunted trees. Rocks and boulders dot the terrain but there's no mountain or even hills to be seen.  

Shippo’s mark goes cold. 

Kagome stumbles, fear stabs her. She screams. Reiki cloaks her in lilac, she runs faster. Not again. Never again. 

The pack roars.

Rin explodes forward in a ball of light. Skipping and skimming along the ground. It’s her first time creating a traversal ball successfully. Kagome spares a thought to wish Sesshomaru was there to see it.  

Rin’s ball bounces off of thin air and ricochets back at them. Inuyasha leaps over Kagome shifting in mid-air and catches Rin as the ball dissolves around her. 

Landing hard they send a spray of rocky soil in every direction. Highlighting the barrier’s contours. Kagome skids to a stop. 

She snaps back into a human, coats her arms in reiki up to her elbows and reaches for the barrier. It crackles with foreign energies. As if someone had taken yokai and moved it to a different place on the magical periodic table. It was still demonic, but slightly to the left. 

“Nice catch, little brother.” Rin climbs out of the crater they made and offers Inuyasha a hand up. 

“Keh, I’m older than you.”

“Only on a technicality. Grandfather turned you into a ten year old, which made me two years older than you and one older than Shippo.”

“You were always one year older than Shippo, what does me being-” 

“Enough.” Kagome barks. The pups fall silent. 

Kagome shapes her reiki into a whip and slashes the barrier. Blue lightning flashes across its surface, sulfur fills the air. She wrinkles her nose and hits it again. Same effect.

Channelling more power into the whip, Kagome winds up and spins on her toes. Hair obscuring her view she feels more than sees the whip connect. Her eyes glow lilac and claws grow on her fingertips. Kagome twirls faster. The whip spins around her and slaps the barrier in rapid fire. 

Hairline cracks spider web across the surface. Kagome stops spinning and reels. How Sesshomaru can do that move effortlessly eludes her. She backs up to the pups positions, holds one hand in front of herself, finger pointing at the densest part of the cracking and mimes drawing the string back on a bow. 

A pink arrow forms along her outstretched arm moving backwards as she draws. Reiki flares around the tip, stretching and becoming serrated. Kagome centers herself and looses. 

The arrow whistles through the air and hits the barrier dead on. Hanging suspended for a moment before collapsing forward and striking the barrier a second time as the reiki drills into the point of impact. The entire barrier lights up pink.

Boom!

Kagome covers her eyes with her arm and braces as magic and concussive force race inward and then explode outwards. Shippo’s mark warms on her back, surprise and amusement undercutting his anger.

I’m coming, baby. “Ready?” 

Rin rolls her shoulders and loosens her naginata in its sheath. “Well, we did just knock on their door.” 

“Knock?” Inuyasha laughs coldly, and draws his sword. “We blew the whole front off their house.”

Kagome lets the kids bicker and stalks toward the hillside previously hidden from them. A cave yawns between the hills. Green light flashes deep inside. 

Kagome stalks through the mouth and steps over a body, still smouldering, with tiny green flames eating his flesh. “Watch your step, your brother made a mess.”

“Of course he did.” Rin huffs, “He obviously doesn’t take after father.”

“Your father has made plenty of messes.” Kagome shot back over her shoulder. “Don’t you recall the incident with the sword?”

“ Incident with the sword ,” Inuyasha mocks, “Could you be any less vague?”

“You know the one with the demon thingy.”

“Demon thingy?” Rin deadpans, “Wow, you know I just can’t pinpoint it, it's like my life hasn’t been chock full of demon thingy’s for as long as I can remember.”

“Okay, look. I am a little too busy to go scouring my mind for every single instance Sesshomaru has made a mess of his enemies. It’s not like we haven’t fought a war or two. Or even-” She snaps her fingers triumphantly, ‘Aha! So’unga! That sword.” 

“Oh.” Rin tilts her head and nods, “yeah okay, that was a mess.”

Inuyasha trips over a corpse and mutters about being possessed and legacies and how it always comes back to their grandfather/his father. 

The deeper they go the lighter it gets and the thicker the carpet of corpses becomes. Shippo’s torn through an entire mercenary contingent single handedly. Kagome’s never been more proud. She’ll have to tell Sesshomaru about this. 

They hit a second barrier, different from the first but no less strong. Probaby set by a different demon. Beyond it they can see Shippo wielding both of his swords and spinning like a dervish as he cuts down enemy after enemy. 

Pack bonds thrum with power as he leans backward, narrowly avoiding the slash of a blade.  The mercenary band has him surrounded, a big man in the back shouting orders; a familiar jewel is embedded in his forehead.

Why can she feel Shippo through this barrier but not the first? Kagome sheathes her arms in reiki. “Whatever you do, don’t break that jewel. Under any circumstances. And don’t let him escape either. Understood?”

“Yes, mom.” Rin and Inuyasha chorus. 

Kagome reaches into her core and taps it, flooding her body with divine energy. 

Tap. Reiki ripples down her arms. The whites of her eyes bleed pink and her irises turn silver, pupils disappearing. 

Tap. Fangs and claws grow, ears taper up into points.

Tap. Kagome winds up and punches the barrier. It shakes and cracks. Inside it the fighting slows as people turn towards them. The big man bellows. Kagome doesn’t hear him. 

Tap. She hits it again and walks through it as it crumbles down around her. Rin and Inuyasha dart past her weapons singing. 

Kagome beelines for the big guy. She spits a word, magic tears out of her and slaps the mercs pushing them back. Clearing a rough crescent around her. 

She steps, carves her claws through a man's spine. Sidesteps his fall, ducks beneath a woman's sword and rips her open from belly to jaw. 

Someone charges her, she backhands him into Shippo’s waiting swords. Her son barks, the foxes harsh scream echoing within, swords flash.  

Kagome flows, dancing through the forms. Feint left, hit. Hammer a kick into a man's side. He charges, ducking her swing, and tackles her. 

Back slapping the dirt, she gasps. Hands lock around her throat. Dark, furious eyes, glare down at her.  Kagome arches her hips, he tips over her but not off; he changes his grip, she sucks in a quick breath. 

He slaps her. She claws at his arms, face, neck. Anything she can reach. He slaps her again. Darkness clouds her vision. 

Come on. I’ve practised this. 

Planting a foot on the cave floor she twists her hips up and over. Her opponent rolls off her. She bites at the air, hoping that if she swallows enough she’ll be able to breathe again. 

Getting his limbs underneath himself he rushes her on all fours. Kagome rolls with the hit rising onto her knees and drops elbow first onto the back of his head. He slumps. Using his body as leverage she knees him in the head. 

Vice grip on her shoulder, she spins, an arm clamps around her chest. 

Again with the throttling?

She elbows her attacker, they grunt. The arm shifts, trying to get a better hold of her. She elbows them again, and again. Stomps on their inseam. They snarl in her ear. Jerking her head, the arm slides up, covering more throat than collarbone. 

She bites his forearm. Hot blood floods her mouth. She bites harder. He screams, lifting her up and trying to throw her. Kagome kicks both feet off another merc, pushing them backwards. 

They throw their arms wide and hammer a punch into her ribs. She rips a chunk of flesh out of their arm, spits it onto the ground and bares bloody fangs at them. 

They clamp their hand on the wound and back away, shaking their head. Disbelief and fear stark on their face. 

Reiki grows up from her hands, over both elbows and shoulders, all the up to her chin. Demon blood boils within the lilac armor, steam escaping from the fingertips, turning to dust as she purifies it. 

She advances. They flee, so focused on her that they miss Inuyasha stepping into their path. He swings tetsusaiga almost lazily, their body stumbles forward, their head doesn’t move from Tetsusaiga’s blade. 

Inuyasha flicks his blade sending the head flying into the melee, checks Kagome over and turns back to the fight. 

Kagome scans for the leader, finds him still in the back corner, and rips into the first merc in her way. 

Rin snarls; a wave of yokai dissolves three people to Kagome’s right. Twisting her hand into a point, Kagome drives it into her opponent's chest, grabs his heart and squeezes. He screams.

Hot blood rushes up her arm, reiki reshapes into a curve just above her elbow, sending the blood back down her arm. She squeezes; the muscle pops in her hand. 

Using his body as a shield, Kagome glances over at Rin. Her and Inuyasha are fighting back to back, Rin’s naginata nothing but a metallic blur as she blocks an attack. Inuyasha cuts two more down, tetsusaiga pulses and dragon scales rocket up the blade. 

Huh, he’s unlocking his attacks quicker than expected. 

Kagome’s merc-shield shudders. She turns away from her kids and swipes her claws down a man's face. A grisled human, he yells at her. She claws him again, claws catching on his eye socket, he screams. She flicks the remnants of ruined eyeballs off her hand with a shudder. 

Shippo yells, green flames erupt, sheathing his swords. Warriors scream. Kagome glances at him, spectral foxes lean out of his flaming swords snapping and biting at whoever is closest. Dragging them onto the blades. 

She’s nearing the back of the cave. Fighters growing in age if not in experience. What kind of mercenary band can’t take down three teenagers and their mother? The Band of Seven would never. 

Kagome laughs. Bankotsu would have killed everyone here and then himself if this was all that he had to work with. 

She cuts down another older merc and finds herself face to face with their leader. The jewel glints in his forehead taunting her. He points at her and growls something in a language she doesn’t speak but his meaning is clear. He’s going to kill her. 

Kagome smiles at him and barks, “You can try.”

He pulls an axe out of his belt and Kagome sneers at the sheer arrogance. What kind of idiot sits back while his people are killed and doesn’t even draw his weapon? 

He snarls and lunges. Kagome steps into his slash and buries her claws in his gut. He grunts. She pushes him backwards. 

He drops the axe and backhands her. Kagome’s world goes black she moves through the air and slams into someone. They yell, she leaps up and sways. The entire side of her face is numb. 

“Mom!” Three voices chorus.

The person under her grabs at her legs, Kagome shapes her reiki into a blade and stabs down at them. The grip on her calf slackens. 

The leader points at her with the axe and mimes chopping into her. How original. 

“Bring it on you overgrown turnip.”

He doesn’t know what she said but her tone is enough to clue him in. He charges. Kagome watches him come. He lifts his axe high, she drops and sweeps her leg. 

He crashes backwards and shes on him before he fully falls. Reiki blade slicing through his chest. Reacting to his demonic blood and solidifying. It sticks to his ribs and she flexes, sending a hundred tiny spikes of reiki into his body. He jerks in her hold, screams gurgling as she lacerates his left lung. 

They hit the ground. He paws at her, fingers digging into her arms. She sends another volley of spikes through his chest. His arms drop, eyes rolling back and jaw gaping. 

The crow demon bursts out of the undamaged part of his chest. Squawking and flapping he dives for the jewel. Kagome’s faster. 

Kagome plucks the jewel from his forehead. Making a fist around the jewel she coats her fist in reiki, sealing it. 

The crow dives at her, beak clacking. Kagome layers more reiki over her fist, shaping it just right. The crow stabs at her, she brings her fist down on it like a club. 

Missing its head, she nails its wing. Bones snap, the crow screams. It drops onto the body. Kagome rears back and clubs it again. And again. 

“I think he's dead, mom.” Inuyasha crouches next to her, hand on her shoulder. “This is the same crow that-” 

Sitting back and panting heavily, Kagome pats at Inuyasha’s hands as he tries to support her. Shaking her head she clues into what was asked.

“Stole the jewel from me the first time?” Kagome taps the toothy beak. “Yup. It is. Three eyes, possessing a mercenary company instead of a pack of bandits but…” She shrugs. 

Inuyasha helps her stand. Rin and Shippo are giving them space by dispatching the remaining Mercs. Some are mercy kills, others aren't. They can't let any kind of rumors about a jewel spread. She releases her power, it melts around the jewel clearing most of the blood off her hand as it does. 

Inuyasha leans in to examine the jewel, wrinkling his nose as he gets a whiff of her. Kagome scrunches her nose back at him. 

Moving the jewel to her non-dominant hand she forms a sphere or reiki on her palm, places the jewel inside it and seals it partially into her body. There’s no way in hell she’s going to risk losing it. 

Absorbing it is also out of the question. It’s not the same shikon, and while the circumstances line up, and she’s getting suspicious of the timeline as well, it could anchor her in this world. She doesn’t want to stay one second longer than necessary.  

Rolling her shoulders and shaking out her aching arms, Kagome returns to the back of the cave. Something about it rubs her the wrong way. 

Why hide back here and not join the fight? 

There's a single chair that desperately wants to be a throne but is too run down, and underneath it is a trap door. 

“Well, well, well. Children, it appears there's another level to this dungeon.”

“What does that even mean?” Rin grumbles as she and Shippo join them. 

“It means we need to open this and find out what's inside it.” Kagome pushes the chair, it wobbles but doesn’t budge. 

Rin takes a step and hammers a kick into it. The chair shatters. 

“Show off.” Inuyasha mutters. Shippo nods in agreement. 

“Don't start.” Kagome warns. She crouches, brushes dirt and debris off the trapdoor. A rusty latch, unlocked, secures it shut. 

They open it. Darkness broken only by torchlight spirals down. Angry snarling echoes from the depths. 

“Fox fire!” Shippo sends a ball of flames through the door, it breaks apart into several smaller balls and spreads out. 

Chains, bloodstains, two buckets full of mystery liquid that none of them want to contemplate. 

The chains rattle and shift, the growling growing stronger. Two people step into the green light of the fox fire. 

Kagome gasps. Inuyasha pins his ears and whimpers. One is a demon with long black hair, golden eyes and two pointed ears on his head, his clothing is heavily bloodstained and grimy. It was white once, they can see patches without dirt or blood that are snow white in color. The other is a young woman with brown eyes and black hair. She's wearing a filthy red and white school uniform. 

It's like looking in a funhouse mirror. The same but different. Kagome sees the eyes widen on the girl's face, horror and confusion warring with hope. 

“Are they?” Rin asks quietly. 

“It's Kagome and Inuyasha.” Shippo said in shocked awe. “They must belong to this world.” 

“We need to get them out of there.” Kagome pulls away from the door. “Find me a ladder or some rope.” 

They get alternate Kagome and Inuyasha out of their chains and up into the main cave. Water and food are sourced and shared. They leave as a group. Finding a narrow stream and taking turns getting the worst of the grime off before heading back to camp. 

Both of the doppelgangers speak the same language as the mercs; Kagome tries english. Alt-Kag perks up and says something akin to english. But like the yokai, its English slightly to the left. Kagome shakes her head, Alt-Kag frowns. They resort to miming things. 

Inuyasha and Dark-Yasha keep eying and sniffing at each other. Inuyasha is only slightly shorter than his dark counterpart, but the age difference is obvious. Dark-Yasha is roughly fifteen/sixteen, the same age Inuyasha had been when Kagome met him for the first time, whereas Inuyasha is twelve-ish. 

“He’s an inu half demon, alright.” Inuyasha confirms as they make their way back to their campsite. 

Rin rolls her eyes. “I could have told you that.”

Inuyasha scowls at her, “But you didn’t.”

“It wasn’t my call to make, he’s not my counterpart!”

“Maybe we should find yours then!”

Shippo stiffens. “Does this mean we all have a dark world variation? Would mine still have his father?”

“Oh, Shippo.” Kagome reaches for him and pulls him into a hug. Kissing his damp head. “We don’t know for sure, can’t really know. Fate is funny like that. If a different version of you is running around with his father then maybe he’ll get to grow up with him.”

Shippo shrugs in her hold. Kagome hugs him tighter. Rin joins the hug, squeezing her brother fiercely. Inuyasha glomps onto them. Both Alt-Kags and Dark-Yasha hug them as well. 

Shippo laughs, it's the most Kagome thing Alt-kag has done yet. “All she needs to do now is sit him.” 

Inuyasha squawks, and Shippo laughs harder. His laughter holds a sharp edge, a hair's breadth away from cracking. Kagome bumps his shoulder with her own. He leans into her touch. They stay like that for a while. 

Camp is intact and just as chaotic as they’d left it. They set it to rights, get the fire going and huddle close to it as the sun begins to set. 

Kagome and Alt-Kags sit side by side. Kagome showing her counterpart different miko tricks. Producing the red jewel, Kagome hands it to Alt-Kags, it lightens in color slightly, as the girl takes it. 

They ponder the jewel in silence and Kagome makes a snap decision. Nudging Alt-Kags, she holds her hand out, palm up and reaches deep inside herself. Pink light flickers in her palm. All eyes are on her as Kagome pushes the Shikon into being on her palm. 

Alt-Kags gasps. Dark-yasha leans forward, a hungry look on his face. Rin growls at him, flashing her fangs. He grumbles and backs off. 

Kagome takes the jewel and presses it to her chest. Nudging Alt-Kags until she does the same. Kagome pushes the Shikon into her chest, light and divine energy flares as it's reabsorbed into her. 

Beside her, red light and magenta divine power blaze as Alt-Kags absorbs the jewel for the first time. Ethereal winds lift her dark hair, the whites of her eyes bleed magenta. 

Thunder booms overhead. Silver lightning cracking across the sky and diving into the center of their camp. 

A giant fox takes shape, his pelt is the reverse of a typical foxes, black body, red legs, white tip on each of his nine tails. 

He speaks in a booming voice. Alt-Kags responds, her body flowing up into a three tailed kitsune. Almost identical to the one standing before them. He turns to Dark-Yasha, who nods. They vanish in another lightning strike. 

“Holy shit, mom.” Shippo points at where their counterparts had been. “Was that Dark Grandfather?!”

“I think so.” Kagome rubs her temples and shivers. The dark world version of Teruo felt similar to her father but again, as everything here seems to feel, he was slightly off. 

Exhaustion swamps her; adrenaline finally wearing off. She hasn’t had a fight like this in years, and boy can she feel it. Her entire body aches. Muscles that she didn’t even know existed until today hurt. She would do unspeakable things in order to soak in a hot spring right now. Untold horrors, war crimes, admitting she was wrong. 

The sky opens up and warm rain pours down on them. Soaking them to the bone in seconds. Kagome draws her legs up, wraps her arms around them and buries her face in her knees. This was not the hot water she was wishing for.

“Great. Just what we need! Can this day get-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence Inuyasha!” Rin growls menacingly. 

Sluicing water out of his eyes, Inuyasha glares at her. “Or what? I already kicked your ass once today. I ain’t afraid to do it again.”

“Try it.” Shippo leans around Kagome and sneers “I’ll back her up. Think you can take both of us without your little sword?”

Inuyasha cracks his knuckles. “Easily.” 

Rin stands, slicks her hair back and offers Inuyasha a hand up. “Alright tough guy.”

Shippo bounces up, takes Rin’s naginata, Tetsusaiga, as well as his twin swords, and hands them to Kagome. 

Kagome sighs with her entire body. Takes the weapons and drops them next to herself. Muttering the entire time about teenagers, hormones, and subjugation beads. 

You get beads of subjugation! And you get beads of subjugation! Everyone’s getting beads! 

The kids go furry. Kagome stops paying attention. Maybe it's foolish, but she can’t bring herself to care. She’s raising warriors not average teens, and demons to boot. They need regularly scheduled bouts of violence, preferably supervised, but honestly these scraps only reaffirm their place in the pack. 

Rin is the heir to the West with Shippo as her ‘spare’. Inuyasha should have been out of the line of succession, being both a half demon and the spare of the current ruler. However his ascension from half to full demon and being de-aged puts him back in line. 

Bodies clash, the ground trembles. Pack rank wise, Inuyasha’s instincts tell him that he should be the beta. Sesshomaru and Kagome are both Alphas, but again, his de-aging means he’s been demoted from beta to pup. Their pack doesn’t have a beta and won’t have one until Rin is fully grown. Shippo’s position is secure regardless of who is beta, he doesn’t want to be the beta. He’s comfortable and happy as a midrank member. 

As far as Kagome knows, Inuyasha doesn’t want to be the heir. He wants to be the beta. Rin however, does want to be beta. Thus, their rivalry. Shippo has been Rin’s second since they were little; foxes don’t hold themselves to the strict hierarchy of Inu’s or Wolves, but that doesn’t stop him from backing his sister up as needed. 

Rin goes airborne. Shippo screams. Kagome perks up, tuning into their fight. Shippo sinks his teeth into Inuyasha’s ruff. Dragging him backward, Shippo shakes him like a rat. 

Rin rights herself and slams into Inuyasha’s exposed belly. Shippo lets go, Rin’s momentum rolls them over. For half a second Inuyasha has the highground, then Rin grabs his throat, twists them and pins him by his shoulders. 

Sides heaving she clamps down on his throat. Inuyasha struggles, claws scraping her sides. Blood flies. Rearing back, Rin picks him up and slams him back down. He stills, gasping for breath. 

Shippo slinks around them, lips pulled back and a deep, drumming growl emanating from him. Inuyasha rakes his back paws against Rin’s belly. She snarls but doesn’t let go. He kicks her.

The air goes out of her, she sags on top of him and growls. Lifting a back foot she rakes his inner thigh. Inuyasha yelps like the puppy. 

Shippo screams back at him sharply. Insult and warning.

Inuyasha goes limp. Tipping his head back he submits. 

Rin holds on. Inuyasha whines. She growls back. He deflates beneath her, all the fight leaving him at once. Rin drops him, clacks her teeth together millimeters from his nose and moves off him. 

Shippo is on him before Inuyasha can twitch. Paw on the inu’s throat, he leans down and snarls something directly into Inuyasha’s ear. 

Kagome can’t hear it, wouldn’t be able to understand what was said unless she was also in her kitsune form, but Inuyasha stiffens, lips twitching up into a snarl, and then rolls onto his side and stays there. 

Shippo steps over him and rejoins Kagome at the remains of their fire. His fur, made darker by the rain, brushes her back and sides. Kagome leans into him. He tilts his head towards her and she scratches his closest ear. He groans and melts. 

They stay like that for hours. Rin joins them, scuffs a paw over the burnt logs, pushing them into the sand and covering them. She lays down, paws tucked neatly beneath her, and rests her head on Shippo’s flank. 

One of her ears covers Kagome, shielding her from the rain. Kagome pats Rin’s chin in thanks. Rin thumps her tail twice in acknowledgement. 

Eventually, Inuyasha crawls into the puppy pile. Settling into the space they left for him. Kagome can smell the blood on his coat. Where Rin had taken the time to clean her wounds, Inuyasha sulked. Healing him would be quick and easy, but doing so could undermine Rin and Shippo’s authority. 

Kagome is their mother, and her love is unconditional. But she is also their Alpha, and her actions, even when influenced by love, carry weight. 

To heal or not to heal. Tucked  into her furry and warm cocoon, clothes transitioning from soaking to wet, she decides to let them be. Hoping that all the fighting has worn them out enough to calm the hell down until they can find a way home. 

Sleep comes fast. Kagome dreams of Sesshomaru, of her youngest children, of home. Her heart aches, she misses them so much. She can almost hear Sesshomaru’s deep voice calling her name. 

Shippo jostles her, and Kagome wakes. Hands flying for the bow she doesn’t have. 

Inuyasha and Rin are standing, angled in front of Kagome. Their ruffs are up, teeth bared, tails high, and they are utterly silent. Shippo is nearly vibrating he's so tense. 

A silver rift is cutting through the air. The very threads of reality splitting along its seam. Two fuzzy hands pry it apart and an old monkey’s grey face peers through the gap. 

He winks at them and laughs. Tearing the rift open further he turns away from them, vanishing from sight.

Rin shrinks, a disbelieving smile on her face. “It smells like home.” 

Sesshomaru fills the gap, his armor soot stained and bloody. He’s the most beautiful person Kagome has ever seen in her entire life. 

Kagome lurches to her feet, stumbling towards him. Both Inuyasha and Shippo regain their humanoid forms. 

Sesshomaru reaches through the gap. Kagome takes his hand. It’s solid and warm and firm in hers. A current runs through them, her mating bond bursts to life. Sesshomaru pulls her through the rift. It’s like passing through jello, thick and slimy and slow moving.

Kagome gropes behind her for one of the pups. A slim hand finds hers, she doesn’t know whose, just clamps down onto them and pulls them through behind her. 

They leave a desert wasteland behind and step into an opulent paradise. Hot water slaps her feet and Kagome slips on wet stones. Inuyasha collides with her back, his feet sliding on the same mossy stone hers had. Rin and Shippo exit the rift gracefully. 

Sesshomaru pulls Kagome to him and kisses her. Softly at first, and then deeper. She cups his face, kissing him harder. 

Inuyasha retches dramatically. Then says, “Why are we in the hot springs?”

Kagome breaks off the kiss to look around them for the first time since setting sights on Sesshomaru. 

They are standing ankle deep in hot water. Thick wooden walls close them off from the outside world, small trees and shrubs line the edges of the spring, naturally filtering the water. Some of the rocks are blanketed in Sesshomaru’s favorite flower, sedum. 

“How?” Kagome asks Sesshomaru, what exactly she’s asking about she isn’t sure. There's so many questions. 

“Bathe first.” He brushes his thumb back and forth across her cheek, “Everything will be explained after.”

He greets the children, raises an eyebrow at their various injuries and orders them to bathe as well. 

Servants bring soaps and clothing and flee. Kagome doesn’t blame them. She knows they stink. The water turns gray as they scrub off a week's worth of dirt, blood, and dust. Kagome washes her hair twice and still doesn’t quite feel clean enough. 

Finger foods and drinks arrive while they are still bathing. They fall on the plates ravenously. The poor badger demon who brought it cowers from them in a corner, clearly regretting their life’s choices. 

Sesshomaru and the littles wait for them just outside the hot springs. Kagome drops to her knees and hugs them, tears pouring down her face as she kisses each head and rubs each cheek. The littles cry just as hard. 

It takes a while for everyone to get reacquainted and stop crying. Kagome especially.

Arm in arm they walk through the gardens and into the Shiro. Sesshomaru tilts his head at her but says nothing. Kagome shifts Kaito higher on her hip and also doesn’t say a word. Being here with him is more than enough. 

Two guards are stationed outside the main hall. Kagome raises an eyebrow but Sesshomaru’s mask is firmly in place. Trusting her mate, she follows him through the empty space the doors used to occupy and finds three incredibly familiar beings chained to the floor. 

Two are trussed up like pigs, chains looping over shoulders, around torsos, down both legs, and thick iron collars, each with four chains driven into the floor, adorn their necks. Gags muffle their complaints. The third sits on a chair and buffs her nails, her chains are draped across her lap but not secured. 

Sesshomaru’s mother and an entire platoon of guards surround the three prisoners. Kimiko is seated next to Kannon and is filing her nails. A tray with various polishes sits between them. 

“Sesshomaru, did you…” Kagome looks at him and then at the three Deities and then back at Sesshomaru, gobsmacked. “Did you kidnap three Gods?”

“Yes.”

“I- What? Why?” She waves the arm that isn’t holding Kaito wildly as she scrambles for words. “How?” 

“Tenseiga is the sword of Heaven and Hell. I simply opened a door and walked in.”

“One doesn’t just walk into Heaven!”

“He led his entire army in, child.” Kannon doesn’t look up from her nails. “It was quite the sight, truth be told. Very romantic. Blue or purple?”

The last is directed at Kimiko who leans over to peer at the two bottles of polish. “Purple.”

Kannon hums her agreement and starts painting her nails. “Of course your dear father had to throw a fit, honestly Kaito here is far more mature. And Sarugami waded in because he has no sense, and well, I was bored. So here we are and now here you are as well.”

“Great. Okay.” Kagome bites her lips, turns to Sesshomaru, opens her mouth, changes her mind and says instead, “Do you want another baby? We can have another baby. This is the hottest thing you've ever done, oh my dad! You kidnapped the gods for me.”

Sesshomaru shakes his head and rests his cheek against the top of Kagome’s head. 

A grey monkey waltzes out of the shadows, gives Sesshomaru two thumbs up, draws a knife and cuts a hole through reality, steps through it and leaves. 

Kagome points with the hand holding Kaito, turning her hip into the motion, “Who was that?”

The rift between realities knits itself shut and fades. 

“Sarugami from the world you were in. Apparently, Teruo owed his counterpart a favor.” Kannon shrugs, “Who doesn’t the old fox owe a favor to nowadays?”

Kagome wilts into Sesshomaru’s side, “You can keep him chained up for as long as you’d like. I want to lay down somewhere comfortable and hear about your crusade against the Gods.”

To Kannon she says, “As always, it's wonderful to see you, Lady Kannon.”

 Kannon waves with her unpolished hand and goes right back to her conversation with Kimiko. 

Sesshomaru, Kagome, and their children leave. 

Teruo and Sarugami make eye contact and begin communicating via elaborate eyebrow waggling.