Author's note: As a commission from Kookia, here is a Zack/Kagome story with a twist. Sorry it took so long to get so little out!

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or Inuyasha.

---------------------------------------------------

Prelude

Act II of Loveless… (Story)

Though the prisoner escapes, he is gravely wounded
His life is saved, however
By a woman of the opposing nation

He begins a life of seclusion with her
Which seems to hold the promise of eternal bliss

But as happiness grows, so does guilt
Of not fulfilling the oath to his friends

_____________________________________________

"Do you have to go Kagome?" Shippo half-asked, half whined as he hung of the young teen's shoulder as she walked away from the village and towards the Bone Eater's Well.

"It's just for a couple of days." She assured the young fox yokai as "I'll be back before you know it, with all kinds of treats."

"Including candy?" She smiled and looked over to him as they crested the hill overlooking the mysterious well. Over the past year, the young yokai had grown extremely close to her. Not as a brother, but, as weird as it sounded, like a son. Well, it sounded weird to her, a modern-day girl who thought girls should only be having kids in their 20s, but in the Feudal era, there was nothing wrong with 16-year-old girls being mothers.

"Yes, including candy." Her smile disappeared as she looked back to watch where she was going, and saw three orange balls. "Are those yokai?" She stopped halfway down the hills as the balls bounced of their own accord. They were alive, there was no doubt about that, but she didn't have that strange feeling that she got around yokai.

"I don't think so…" Shippo said as he dropped to the ground.

Kagome frowned as he started to walk towards the balls. "Shippo, don't." She called out, but the young kitsune didn't heed her. She huffed for a moment before following him tempted to run and pick him up when the balls started to bounce towards them. There was nothing to cause her to think they were bad, but something wasn't right about them. However, she quickly forgot about them when she heard a strange mechanical whirr. She looked over towards the tree line and saw a strange robot. It had a small head, with an optic and a long barrel gun, a shield that protected whatever was behind it, and two tracks on either side.

"Kagome, what is that…" Shippo said, a little fear tingeing his voice as it looked towards her and Shippo. Briefly, she remembered he wouldn't even begin to understand what a robot was. But that was pushed out of her mind as the robot shot something towards the two of them. She only had a moment to think as the artillery shell flew the ten yards or so towards them.

She snatched Shippo off the ground and ran for the nearest shelter, which was the Well. The forgotten balls bounced up into the air, and she felt something red-hot strike her back as she dived into the well, and the boom of thunder as she fell into the well head first. She noticed the Well wasn't glowing its usual soft purplish pink but a strange sea green color before her eyes closed and she lost consciousness.

----------------------

"Why are we down here again?" Zack asked as he walked in front of his fellow SOLDIER and mentor, Angeal. Usually he loved going one missions, they were the highlight of being a SOLDIER operative. However, it wasn't much fun just walking around the inside of the Mako Reactor below Sector 0.

"Because Shinra troops reported a Mover RE down here." The 1st Class Soldier replied slightly exasperated. "Your mission is to locate it and destroy it." And his mission was to watch over the exuberant teenager and make sure he didn't damage anything.

Zack paused before turning to face him. "Can't they take care of that?" He had faced those kinds of monsters before, both in simulations and real life. The three bouncing balls were pretty easy, just keep dodging them and firing magic at it and they went down quickly.

"Apparently not." Personally, Angeal found that hard to believe. All monsters in Midgar were easy enough that the regular, non-Mako infused soldiers could take care of them. Most civilians in the slums could defend themselves without any prior training. What was troubling him though, was that a monster had been sighted in Mako Reactor 0 that sat right below the Shinra Headquarters. How could a monster get through security? How did a Mover RE, native to caves in the Western Continent, end up in Midgar in the first place? Something was amiss about this whole situation…

"Shippo?" Both men froze when they heard a girl's voice echo off the steel walls. "Shippo, where are you?"

"This way!" Before Angeal could protest, Zack took off and ran down the twisting and turning halls of the Reactor. "Where are you?" He called out to the girl when he came to a fork in the road.

"Over here!" He grinned as he turned right and continued down the winding corridors into the heart of the reactor. Finally, some action! However, as he turned the last corner, he ran headfirst into someone, sending them both tumbling down to the floor.

"Ow…" He heard someone moan beneath him, and quickly scrambled to his feet.

"You okay?" He asked sheepishly as the girl about his age rubbed her back. He never saw a girl like her. Well, he shouldn't say that, she had normal enough black hair and brown eyes, and her skin was a normal color, if a bit on the tanned side. Her outfit looked strange, with a green short skirt and a shirt that looked slightly like a sailor's uniform.

"I'm fine." She said as she climbed to her feet, dusting of her short green skirt before putting her hands on her hips. "But you should really watch where you're running."

"I'm not the one wondering around a restricted area!" He argued, both amused and surprised. He had every right to be running around here, she obviously didn't. "What are you doing down here anyways?"

The girl frowned, letting her hands drop to her side. "I'm not sure… one minute I in the Well, and the next minute I was climbing out of that green gel stuff. But that doesn't matter," she shook her head, "I need to find Shippo!"

Zack didn't hear the last part when he heard the 'green gel stuff'. "You fell into the Mako?" His eyes darted around, and sure enough he could see bits of Mako on her clothes and in her hair.

"Mako?" She frowned, "I said I fell into a well."

"Zack?" Zack didn't answer her, but looked back when he heard Angeal.

"Over here!" He yelled when he didn't see his mentor. "By the Reactor core! I found some girl,"

"My name is Kagome!" She interrupted but he ignored her for the moment.

"She claims she fell into the Mako." He looked back to the irate… "Kagome? That's a strange name."

She crossed her arms across her chest. "Kagome is not a strange name!" Zack paused before offering his hand.

"I'm 2nd class SOLDIER, Zack." She continued frowned but uncrossed her arms and took his hand. "But seriously, are you feeling alright? Headache? Dizziness? Confusion?" He asked. He remembered when he was first doused in Mako when he first joined SOLDIER. It had not been a pleasant experience to say the least. He still swore that he had a thousand voices in his head when he was submerged, all yelling, screaming, and crying, at him for something.

"I'm fine." She said instantly, still frowning. "I just need to find Shippo."

"Kagome!" Kagome was surprised only for a moment when her arms were suddenly holding a thankfully familiar young kitsune. She was too concerned with trying to consol Shippo, who was sobbing about seeing her in the green stuff and worrying about when she didn't wake, that she didn't see the other man that had appeared with Shippo. Zack however had, and was thankful for the older man's appearance.

"She fell into the Mako." Zack managed to say to Angeal before her noticed the child in Kagome's arms. "He has a tail…"

"Don't stare." Angeal chastened him, although he was having the same problem. "It's impossible…"