Of Claws and Fangs
Episode 51

Rin watched as Keikan moved towards Shakaku a smile beginning to cross her face. Suddenly a weight descended on her heart. Her eyes widened as her fingers grasped Inu Yasha's arm. Looking to Mika she caught the young girls eye and nodded. Even as she did, the feeling of impending doom grew stronger.

At the death grip Rin had on his arm Inu Yasha turned. The look of terror on her face frightened him. Gently removing her hand he readied for the danger she sensed.

Mika saw Rin's nod and pressed closer to her mother, slipping her hand into hers.

Rin's movement caught the inu taiyoukai's eye. Sesshomaru saw the look pass between his daughters. Both of them sensed something.

The tall figure of a woman, dressed in long diaphanous robes materialized in the center of the courtyard. Her hair was long and moved with a life of its own as it continuously shift color. Her eyes traveled over them. Finally her gaze settled on Keikan and he could see that the iris also shifted colors. "Greetings future ruler of the West," she said, her voice low and musical.

Keikan stopped when the woman appeared. Something within him hated this woman, and another part feared her. "Greetings." He answered.

Akisame wondered who this woman could be. Squeezing Mika's hand to comfort the child she watched as the woman's eyes settled on Keikan. Her voice grated on Akisame's nerves, as a claw against a blade.

The woman moved between Keikan and Shakaku. She looked from Keikan to Shakaku and back to Keikan. "You have won your battle but you can not claim your prize," she said.

Mika felt terror seize her. She tried to speak but found she could not. She wanted to tell her nii-san not to listen to this woman but her voice would not work.

Sesshomaru too found he could not move or speak. He wanted to demand of this woman who she was and how she dared to interfere. All he could do was watch the scene unfold before his eyes.

Keikan looked at the woman before him, "Woman, I know not who you are, but you stand between me and mine." His eyes narrowed, "Now move aside."

Akisame watched unable to move, something was agonizingly familiar about the woman. Whatever it was teased at her mind.

Sesshomaru jaw nearly dropped in surprise as the woman started to laugh, she lifted her hand gracefully, covering her mouth as she threw her head back in mirth. The guards, uncertain waited for his signal but he could do nothing. The laughter hurt his ears. Finally she stopped and looked Keikan in the eye. "Little hanyou, I will forgive your impertinence for as you say you know not who I am. I have many names but you may call me Fate."

His shock nearly knocked him off his feet. Sesshomaru heard a gasp from his side. It was Sango. The taijiya started forward but an upraised hand from Fate rooted her to the spot.

A growl echoed from deep in Keikan's chest, "Look you oban (bitchy old hag), I don't give a damn who you are. I'm not playing your baka games. Now move!"

Inu Yasha moved with a slowness he didn't know he was capable. His eyes never leaving the woman before Keikan. She would pay for Kagome's death.

Fate turned to look at Inu Yasha. "I would suggest you stay where you are hanyou," she said, her voice gentle yet dangerous. "Her death was necessary," she turned back to Keikan. "If you wish to jeopardize the fate of the worlds, by all means go ahead. I present you your choices, Keikan of the Western Lands. Take the tora as your mate and damn your father's race or leave her and make peace between the ningen and youkai."

Shakaku couldn't believe what she was hearing. This woman was forbidding her to be his mate? She looked over the woman's shoulder at Keikan, eyes sparkling with unshed tears.

Fate? Sesshomaru's growl joined his son's. This being had nearly ruined his life and now she was here to ruin his son's? He heard a whimpering coming from his mate's side. It was Mika. She too looked as if she were fighting the strange hand that gripped him.

Keikan paused for a moment. Something was wrong. His destiny was to be greater than his Grandsire. True making peace between ningen and youkai would accomplish that, but his sire could do that just as easily or Keishou. "Forgive me Chichioya," he said nodding to his sire, then returning his gaze to the woman calling herself Fate. "Oban, if I have to choose between making peace and Shakaku, then by all means let loose the dogs of war. For I choose her, above land, above rank, above title and as for my destiny I will chart that with her at my side."

Akisame ventured a glance at Sesshomaru. His narrowed eyes shown with flickers of red. Her head dropped, sadness and anger held equal sway in her heart. She had, as she always feared, lost him to a memory.

Inu Yasha froze, not from fear of her but fear of what she could do to Rin. He turned to look back at his family. Akisame had stepped slightly behind Sesshomaru, the expression on her face full of anger and pain.

A small frown appeared on Fate's sculpted face. Then she smiled, an overly sweet smile. "You have chosen you're door little hanyou." Fate's form faded and disappeared, her final words floating in the air around them. "But are you prepared for the consequences of your choice? Akari was not."

Mika felt the strangling grip lessen as Fate's form faded. Something was not right. There was something wrong with this beings words. She suddenly felt the loss of her twin drastically. Mirdori would know. Finally she could move. "Don't listen to her!" her words fell from her mouth, the words she wanted to say before as if they were birds trapped in a cage only now set free.

Sesshomaru lurched forward a few steps, steps that he had begun to take when Fate first appeared. Another rumbled from his chest as he looked for the cursed woman. His eyes fell on his mate. "Akisame?"

After Fate disappeared, Shakaku ran to Keikan's side, throwing her arms around his neck.

Her mouth was dry, someone must have made a sand garden of it. Akisame flinched as she heard him say her name. "Nani (what), Sesshomaru? I heard your growls. I felt your anger. If she stood before us still would you not attack her?" Angrily she blinked back the tears that threatened. "I won't do this any more. When something goes wrong, your first thought is of her. You find out about Rin and Inu Yasha, suddenly your angry again because of Akari. Even before that your vengeance for Akari, was a bone you wouldn't release. I aided you in taking your revenge against Iroke, I took all his memories of the two of you together. I hold your memories of her. I know your feelings for her as if I felt them. Now this person calling herself Fate appears and your thoughts turn again to Akari." Her head bowed, Akisame let the tears flow, "Never Akisame, never in your times of pain or anger do you call for me, always for a woman long dead." Turning she walked away stopping beside Sango and Miroku, "You are returning to Edo this morning?"

"Hai, Akisame." Miroku answered, "Demo...(But...)"

Shaking her head no Akisame continued, "If you have no objections I would like to come with you."

"Akisame, our home is always open to you." Miroku said, "Demo..."

"No. He has chosen. I can't wait patiently for him to decide between Akari and me. I have not Kagome's patience. I have given my heart and now it lies broken at his feet."

Sesshomaru stared at her, he felt as though someone had thrust a dagger of ice straight through his soul. "Akisame but..." Had they not cleared this up? Was what she said true? Did he always think of Akari? No it couldn’t be true. "How can you expect me not to think of her when the one who sent her to her death stands before me?"

Mika listened, her body starting to tremble. "No," she whispered. This is what she had been envisioning. She had thought this fight over and done with. She had to stop it. She moved to her mother's side again.

Sango stood beside her husband, chewing on her lip, a habit she had picked up from Kagome. "Demo..." She couldn't think of any words to comfort either of them. She wished she could have made Sesshomaru take back his words.

"And what happens the next time? And the time after that? How many times must I help you avenge her death, before I am the one you think of?" Akisame spun to face him. "Am I not enough? I gave up everything for you. Must I too die to receive your love? If that is what it takes to win your heart. Then Akari may keep it. For as much as I love you, I will not die to win your heart from her. Stay here with the gardens you designed for her, within the house you had built for her." Turning to Sango, "I won't be long, I must gather only a few things." She turned and started away slowly, "I will just be a few moments and we can leave." Suddenly she couldn't move fast enough. Running through the door of the castle she ran to their room. The tears streaming down her face as she realized, this room had been built for her too. Grabbing the bottle of aspirin and the small paintings of her children, Akisame changed quickly into an old kimono she hadn't worn in nineteen years. "This at least was always mine." She reached to grab the kimono Leena and Taka had gifted her with only to stop. "No, it will only make me think of him."

Mika's head whipped back and forth. Her father just stood there with a pained look on his face. She ran up to him. "Do something, Chichioya! She doesn't mean it...she really doesn't," she pounded her small fists into his chest her own tears pouring down her cheeks now. "Don't let her leave!" she screamed.

Sesshomaru looked down at her, "What if she is right?" he asked, voice heavy with emotion.

"She's not!" Mika cried again. She ran over to Keikan, "Make her stop!"

Inu Yasha watched as his brothers mate bolted from the courtyard. Everything she had said, he had heard from Kagome. Grasping Rin's hand he squeezed gently, turning to meet her chocolate eyes he smiled at her. Somewhere, some time when he hadn't been watching he'd grown up. Getting revenge for Kagome wasn't important as it once had been. The woman before him was his future. He wasn't about to blow it this time. Taking Rin in his arms, he whispered, "I choose you Rin. Now and always." He told her gently, "Kagome is at peace, I will not disturb her rest."

Rin smiled at his whispered words, sending a silent thanks to Kagome.

Keikan had watched his mother run from the courtyard, bending he picked up Mika. "I can't Mika. Only Chichioya can stop her."

Akisame stepped into the courtyard all the finery of the western lady gone, she was once again simple Ka Akisame. She didn't look towards him, but moved to stand at the gate, "When you are ready Houshi-sama and Sango."

Yamakaji watched silently as West and his mate fought. The Western Lady normally so full of fire was now a broken woman. Her shoulders slumped slightly, her eyes never rose from their study of the ground before her. He shook his head, to crush such a woman, even if she was ningen.

Keishou looked at his father. He had never seen uncertainty in his father's eyes but he did now and it scared Keishou like nothing ever had before. He looked at Haya. "We'll leave with them now."

Sesshomaru watched as his mate left with his friends and son. A roar of rage and pain torn from his soul erupted from his throat as he ran toward the gardens. Reaching them he took his anger and pain out on the plants he had so carefully worked on. Why? Why was all of this happening now? "Damn it!" he roared, up rooting a tree and flinging it over the garden wall.

Did Fate have some vendetta against him? She had cost him one mate and now it seems she was costing him another. As he shred another tree he felt another stab of pain. Was Akisame right? Was Akari all he ever thought about? "No, she's wrong!"

He continued to tear the garden to pieces until his hands were raw and bleeding. Finally he sank to his knees, hot tears tearing tracks down his cheeks. "Akisame!!!!!!!!!!!"

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