I do not own anything, save maybe the only thing I could think of that would connect a group of demons, half demons and humans in Fuedal Era Japan to a group of shape-shifting human teenagers, thier alien allies and enemies, living in (I think, it's been awhile since I've read the series) modern day America. That would be, for those who can't figure it out, my OC, who I shall not mention much, I hope. Any other mentions of OCs will hopefully be even less. Thank you for listening. (And PS, don't ask me to spell the original owners of Inuyasha OR Animorphs. I can't spell normally, and thier names are complicated to my highly distractable brain.)

This was not expected. It really, really wasn't, and someone up there, possibly those stupid idiot alien god-like people playing their stupid little game which it has already been clear I and my friends are a part of, are currently laughing at me. In fact, I know one is, since he laughed at me when he interfered to start out with.

But maybe I should start at the beginning. Like my name for instance. Here you are, reading me ranting, and you don't even know who I am. I was never taught proper manners, I swear.

But, just so you know, my name is Amber. And that's it. Even if I knew my last name, which I don't, it's really safer and easier all around if I didn't say. So, just call me Amber. Or some silly nickname, perhaps. After all, my friends tend call me stupidly suicidal occasionally, and that works for a name too, I suppose. I answer to it, anyway, a lot.

Anyhow, let's do a quick background check. See, you are probably not aware of what's going on, on any level, and if you are, then either you're far too caught up in fighting it to back away now, or simply possessed by it, and that's probably the worser fate of the two, at least, in my humble opinion, which probably doesn't count for much.

To start out with, let's go with my history, at least some of it. Its kinda abnormal, and ties in with the rest of the need-to-know history. Part of my lack of manners? Yeah, hard to learn manners when your parents are dead when you are three and you spend the rest of your childhood on the streets. Living like Aladdin does not make for good manners, let me tell you.

Then we hit another milestone in my life, age 13. Then I, along with five boys and one other girl from all over the bloody planet, we're kidnapped and turned into monstrous freaks by a Darth Vader scientist. He adds a bunch of animal DNA to our human ones, and unlike the adults and five-year-olds he'd tried it on previously, we survive the experiment. Lucky us, right?

Wrong, since that makes us perfect soldiers, and with some mind control collars in place around our necks, we go out happily murdering, pillaging and plundering like beastly pirates on the scientist's orders, and we cannot stop ourselves due to those blasted collars. I hate those collars. Thankfully, it only lasts about a year.

Then the various world armies after our tails (literally, since we have tails now) manage to corner us in HQ, where they discover the scientist and what he'd done to us, the whole kit and caboodle. They arrest us all, another Luke Skywalker scientist managed to make our mostly humanoid animal forms once again mostly human (although we cannot escape the animal DNA in us now, and are left with the ears, tails, claws and fangs of our animal forms, and the ability to transform into full animal forms based on the genetics inside us), and trial is set.

The whole world tunes in to see what happens, and it's a very short trial, all said. Me and the other kids turned, my Pack, are acquitted of our crimes against humanity, and given an official forgiveness certificate thingy from the UN after our public apology on TV. The scientist, being the TRUE cause of everything, is sent to jail, no bail. My pack splits to go home, and settle back into something of a routine, school, homework, siblings, the opposite sex, all that.

Well, and in the case of some of us, myself included, we are found homes, or given to foster homes to be adopted out. Well, I say myself included, but I evaded their attempts, my life on the streets disallowing me to trust them or their intentions. But all in all, things go back to semi-normal, and all is well.

Then I, living once again on the streets, my natural habitat, in some city whose name I am not saying (it's safer that way), wind up near an abandoned construction zone, watching a group of teens about my age (about 14 or 15 at the time) wander through, obviously using the place as a shortcut. I was also there when an alien spaceship crash-landed there as well, and life got infinitely weirder.

I know what you're thinking. Alien spaceships? Please. But its utterly true. And it comes to another history lesson.

It starts out in another universe entirely, far, far away from our own little solar system. There, an alien race that look like blue-colored mutant centaurs called Andalites have found a slug-like alien race called Yeerks. These Yeerks are utterly helpless, and can even be squished like any normal earth slug in their natural state.

But let them into your head, they'll crawl through your ear canal, into your brain, and sink into all the cracks and crevices, taking over everything and leaving you yourself reduced to one of those voices in the back of your head. Not even your memories are safe, especially since they use those to ensure that they can act like you so completely that no one, not even your own mother, would realize that they aren't really talking to you, but a slug in your brain.

Now, Andalites are peaceful creatures by habit, and this one Andalite, called Seerow (and yes, I'm aware that the names sound weird. They're aliens, what do you expect?), takes pity on the slugs and introduces them to bodily takeover. Things are okay for a while until the Yeerks get power hungry and start taking over anything and everything and planning world domination.

The end result is a war between the Yeerks and the Andalites and Seerow being outcast and banished. It really wasn't his fault, and I feel for him, even though he's long dead by now. Stealing the far more advanced technology of the Andalites (and I'm seriously talking far more advanced. They were walking on their moon while humans were still speaking in single syllables that didn't make much sense in any case.), they begin an even more elaborate quest for domination of the whole solar system and those beyond it.

This war has been going on ever since, and that's for pretty much the entirety of human history as we know it, and possibly beyond even that. Earth was left alone, since humans are, in fact, the highest evolved of the species on the planet, and they aren't as advanced as pretty much any alien race out there, or in any way particularly good for troops, like the Taxxons and Hork-Bajir, who are like giant monsters that are good for killing many things at the same time. (or, at least, can be when it's a Yeerk running the body)

That is, Earth was left alone until this night, when that alien spaceship crash landed. It was an Andalite fighter ship, taking on a powerful Yeerk ship, captained by the only Yeerk-controlled Andalite in existence, who holds the all-important title (in Yeerk culture, that is) of Visser Three. The crashed fighter is captained by a wise and famous Andalite soldier who is rather high up in their hierarchy, called Prince Elfangor-Sirinal-Shamtul, who comes to Earth baring gifts, namely a piece of his people's technology called the Escalfil Device.

This lovely little blue box like object allows anyone who touches it to then take the DNA and forms of whatever animal they touch, although I don't think it adds that DNA so completely to theirs like the scientist did with the animal DNA and my pack and I. In any case, Elfangor offers the box to this group of humans and myself, calling me out of my hiding place, telling us about everything with his dying breaths, and then chases us off, just before Visser Three shows up and destroys Elfangor for the final time.

So, we all get to know one another, decide what to do about the war now on our doorstep, and agree to become a group. I call in my Pack, vouch for them with the other five humans, and we all become a group together to fight the Yeerks, although my Pack still maintains their lives in their countries. We become what one of the humans, Marco, would term the Animorphs.

The fighting was not fun, to be sure, but it had to be done. It was agreed on by everyone there that we couldn't just let the Yeerks take over while we knew and had the ability to do something about it. It wouldn't be right, for one thing, and it wouldn't be fair to humanity either. Still, it was something, and we had a go of it. The Yeerks were further thrown off our trail by the fact that our morphing misled them into thinking us Andalite fighters. They never suspected a bunch of human teenagers and semi-human teenagers to be the ones behind the attacks.

With Jake leading the human Animorphs and me being the Alpha I was created into in regards to the Pack, we fight the Yeerks and set them back continually. Finding a crashed Andalite ship with its only survivor, Elfangor's little brother, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, aboard, we rescue him and he becomes part of the Animorphs, assigning Jake the title of Prince. And we fight, and we go to school and try to be normal teens as well, and everything else.

Then my life gets weirder, and that's saying something. Fighting the Yeerks one fine day, we accidentally set off one of their machines which opens a vortex of some sort, determined to suck us in. The Controllers (our name for Yeerk-controlled beings) and the rest of the team manage to get away to safety, but I am not so lucky, and get sucked in. The vortex collapses behind me, and leaves me to fend for myself in a black hole.

At least, for a moment. The black hole doesn't kill me, surprise, surprise, but it DOES deposit me in the middle of a forest somewhere. It turns out that I'd traveled far away from home and family—I am now located in Japan, circa 1360 or so. Thanks to some luck, some of the DNA given to me was kitsune, or a Japanese Fox demon, and that, along, possibly, with just the other DNA in general (the DNA of all cats and dogs known to man), slowed down my aging processes quite considerably.

So, I go to live a new life in 14th century Japan, and get used to things as they were in a country far from home. Being a kitsune half-demon of sorts in a demon infested time of Japan gives me time to work on the powers and abilities I wasn't aware I had before, and I gained tails as I get more powerful, just like normal full-blooded kitsune. By the time 1460 rolls around, 100 years later, I had quite a life, and about five tails to my name.

That's when things take a turn, and once again I'm caught up in wars not technically my own, but made so anyway. I had heard and even seen the Dog demon called Inu no Tashio, a great, powerful sometimes terrible demon of kind heart and great courage, and the village I chose to inhabit is located on his lands, the Western Lands. He made it a habit of knowing all of the people, human or otherwise, living on his lands, and he know about me just as he does the human villagers.

His eldest son, Sesshomaru, is not as kind-hearted as his sire, though, and most people fear the day he takes over his father's lands. I had also heard of his death, protecting his newborn hanyou (half-demon) son, who is to be called Inuyasha and the human princess who gave him life.

It turns out that Inuyasha and I are more connected then we realized. When Inuyasha was sealed into eternal sleep by a powerful miko after he attempted to steal the magic jewel she protected, the Shikon no Tama, he was freed 50 years later by the time-traveling reincarnation of the miko who sealed him. When she accidentally shattered the jewel trying to retrieve it from a crow demon, they went on a quest to fix things.

Over the course of time, they joined forces with a young full-blooded kitsune kit, a monk of questionable morals and a demon slayer and her cat demon companion, and had the occasional dispute with Sesshomaru, and fought against a evil hanyou named Naraku, who sought to use the Jewel's power to help him achieve world domination.

Meeting me had been more fluke then anything, since the village where I lived were uncomfortable with demons and allowed me to live only on the edges. Not all that pleased with the idea of allowing a pair of demons and half-demon (and a trio of demon-supporting humans) room and board in their village, they had sent the little group my way. Their excuse was that the kit would probably like to meet up with one of his kind.

Naraku sounded like this era and locations' version of Visser Three. When they told me their tale, I asked if I could join. I wanted to help, and if nothing else, I could train the kit, Shippo, better then they could. Only one of them was full demon, and she was a cat demon and didn't even seem to have a human form. I was at least part kitsune. And my five tails proved that I could train the kit quite nicely.

They were kinda surprised by the offer, and Inuyasha, of course, was against it, but I pointed out calmly that it wasn't like I was a little kid asking to join. I could defend myself just as much as he could defend me, and I would be useful to the group as a whole, again if for no other reason then to train Shippo. After all, how exactly were THEY going to train a kitsune kit on kitsune magic?

And that was how I joined in and hunted down Naraku. I fought him, and fought Sesshomaru to make him leave his half-brother alone, not that it worked. He kept showing up and attacking, but after I joined, Inuyasha had simply to stand by with the others and watch me fight. I had a couple of weapons of my own, it was stupid not to master at least something sharp and pointy in this era, but I tended to use my own now-natural weapons more. My fangs and claws were more then a match for Sesshomaru's.

But then my communicator goes off. This little spy-watch deal, which I tended to use to contact and speak with my Pack and the Animorphs, came with me through the vortex, and I always wore it although I never expected it to work after I learned where I was and when I was as well. So of course, right in the middle of a battle with Naraku it suddenly decides to start working, beeping like crazy and distracting everyone into coming to a complete stop and staring at me and my watch.

And this is about where you all come in. Inuyasha's staring at me, and he don't look too happy, which is explained when he demands, "Amber, why is your watch alarm going off NOW?"

I hit the button and look at Jake's face on the watch face, and look at the hanyou before me with a sigh. "I don't think this thing has an alarm. It's a contact device, like a dog's howl to its pack or something, from my home. Excuse me a minute, would you? Hi Jake." Switching from Japanese to English was a little harder then I expected after over a century of simply Japanese, but still, I managed. "You picked a really bad time to call, I hope you know."

"Sorry, but we needed to contact you, and Erek helped us out here with the alien tech at his disposal. I don't know where you are, but we all need you home."

I sighed and dodged a tentacle, since Naraku decided that, since he couldn't understand what I was saying, he might as well go back to attacking his foes. I was extremely adept at multi-tasking, and effortlessly battled my way into fighting, whilst keeping up my conversation.

"I'd like to, Jake my dear, but that's at the moment impossible for a variety of reasons. Like the fact that there are responsibilities here that will have far-reaching consequences if I just abandon them, or the fact that at the moment, I'm currently battling that responsibility, or even the fact that I'm not anywhere near home or anything that could get me home."

"What do you mean? Can't you just morph bird and fly?" asked Jake.

"I could, if I was anywhere near home. But Jake, I can't just morph bird and fly home when I'm currently located in 15th century Japan."

Jake gaped at me, and I dodged a tentacle, heading for the one that was about slice my friend the monk's form into two. The monk, Miroku, was unaware of the body part about to kill him as he saved his love interest, slayer Sango, from another. I looked to the almost bored looking Naraku and sighed, giving a small growl.

Looking at Jake, I commented, "Could you hold on a second? This isn't working, and if we kill this guy here and now, then that will be the end of my responsibilities here in 15th century Japan. Thanks!"

Then, without giving Jake time to comment, I took off the watch, tossed it to Shippo, told him to guard it with his life, and morphed. I had not used my morphing ability while in Japan, per se, especially since my kitsune magic seemed to suffice, but this time, I was done playing games. Thing about Naraku was that he tended to use puppet versions of himself, and killing the puppet wasn't killing the puppet master.

He could never fool me though. Even through the poison gas he gave out, my super-sensitive nose could smell undertones of wood and stone or whatever else was used to make the puppet on the puppet. There was no undertone here, and that meant just one thing. This Naraku was the real deal. Defeat him, and I could think about Jake's issues.

Whatever they were.

Still, my morphing abilities had proven whilst I was here that if I took on a demon, or youkai, then I had their powers and magic at my disposal. I would've liked to have the morph of the Inu no Tashio, but I was never brave enough to approach him when he lived and his skeleton wasn't going to work. Still, I had other demon morphs at my disposal. Not to mention my other more normal morphs from before I was sent here.

I had thought about morphing into a demon, it would be some sort of poetic justice I suppose, but decided that, even though not a demon, a Hork-Bajir was deadly enough that it didn't have to be, and regardless of my morphs, my kitsune powers were still at hand as well, making a Hork-Bajir me very formidable opponent indeed.

Morphing in the middle of battle was a dangerous and risky venture indeed. Especially since even Andalites, who came up with the technology involved in the first place, were rather slow morphers. Kitsune naturally morph into a variety of things due to their trickster magic, and that seemed to have ran over into my own morphing ability. I was the fastest of the morphers in our little group, and the most accomplished at it.

Still, accomplished or not, it was still a sight to see, and the noises involved are not exactly pleasant on the ears. The sloshing noises of my organs rearranging inside and the cracking and breaking of bones as my skeleton changed shapes were loud enough, even despite the noises of battle. I could see everyone still and start staring at me in horror, even as my eyesight changed into that of my morph.

I wondered if anyone would be willing to stand besides me after this was all over, but decided to worry over it later. I had bigger problems on my mind as my blades finally popped up in their usual places. They always came last when I morphed Hork-Bajir, and I really have no idea why.

"By the Kami." breathed Sango in utter horror.

"What in the seven hells?!" yelped Inuyasha, and I could smell some terror from him, although he was covering it up, as usual. I grinned, which probably didn't help my image much. While Hork-Bajir teeth aren't exactly sharp by any definition, having been created to harvest and eat tree bark, the teeth could look somewhat sharp to an untrained eye, and added to that the sharpness of the Hork-Bajir beak-like mouth (and the fact that no matter my form, I tended to have sharper then average teeth, making me a vampire in any morph, something my Pack also suffered), it probably looked even scarier then any demonic smile they had ever seen.

"What's going on?" Jake's voice demanded from my watch, and Shippo, although not understanding English, managed to figure out something of what he wanted and shifted the watch to show me in all my Hork-Bajir glory. With a smirk at my friends, I turned to a wide-eyed Naraku with a sinister grin made all the worse by my appearance.

Make no mistake, I've seen myself in several of my morphs, and the Hork-Bajir is one of them. When I smile and scowl and other such facial looks, I tended to look arguably more scary then anything else. I had often wondered, though, was I scarier smiling or scowling?

Well, Naraku answered that question for me, it's a pity I had to kill him before I could thank him for it. He, in a panic, sent several of his minions at me, and my smile changed right quick, since I had no time or patience to deal with minor annoyances like the minions. I saw several of the others, including my friends, flinch at the gesture.

With a flick of my claws, I cut myself a direct path between the oncoming demons and made my way dead to Naraku. Hork-Bajir don't have the mental capacity to speak much by way of normal languages, and none of the ones that do speak any sort of language outside of their own had ever spoken the Japanese language to my knowledge. I decided against speaking to the hanyou I now loomed over. Naraku was many things, but seven feet tall he was not.

I used thought-speak instead, allowing my voice to flow into everyone's minds. {I do believe that you have something that does not belong to you. May we have it back now?}

I didn't technically give him a chance to respond before reaching forward to the pull of magic I had come to identify as the Shikon Jewel. Plunging my claws into the chest of Naraku, I pulled it forward, gleaming black with the taint of evil the hanyou had given it and dripping with the bastard's blood. It was all there, of course, save a few shards, namely the sole one Kagome, the miko who undid the seal on Inuyasha, carried around, and the two imbedded in the legs of their ally, a wolf demon named Koga, also there.

Shaking off the extra blood and bodily liquids coating the thing, I looked at Naraku and smiled again. Naraku's eyes were wide with terror and his scent is drenched in it, and I know its partially because he knows that if I kill him here, which I fully intended to do, then that was it. After all, he wasn't just a simple puppet or detachment.

{Have any last words, hanyou?} I questioned. When I all got in response was a wide-eyed look of sheer terror and something that suggested that his fear had allowed him to lose some control of his form, I grinned wider. {No? Very well then. Enjoy it in hell. I'm sure Kikyo will be thrilled to see you.}

And before he can run away, I dig my claws into his heart and drag it out into the light. The heart of the human bandit who'd started this, Onigumo, pulsed once in my hands before falling still, disconnected from the main body, and thusly now useless. Then, with the claws of my free hand, I proceed to insure that there was no way Naraku was walking from this. Gruesome and gory, yes, but it has to be done, and besides, it is the 15th century.

Then I turn to Sesshomaru and, after ensuring that Naraku is, in fact, dead, I shrink back into my normal form. No use staying a Hork-Bajir when its not needed. I hold out the heart, and although I myself am part demon, I don't really need to eat the hearts and livers of my prey. Sesshomaru is full demon, and thus, he very well might, which is why I offer him the heart of Onigumo.

"I do not eat tainted meat." is all he says about the matter, and turns to leave, since he has no further use for us, and Naraku is dead. Of course, this is where that stupid little god-like alien I mentioned before, the one laughing at me, decides to show up, right in front of Sesshomaru's path.

Now, under normal circumstances, I'd be worried. Looking like a blue-skinned little old man, the Ellimist, as he is called, hardly looks able to stand up to a demon of Sesshomaru's stature. He doesn't ooze power like Sesshomaru either. If it weren't for the color of his skin, he'd seem as normal as any other human. And any other human who'd dared to get in Sesshomaru's way would be smashed by said dog demon before you could say "wait".

But the Ellimist is probably on the same level as the Kami my friends believe in, in some form or fashion. He may looked like an oddly-colored human, hardly a threat to low-level demons and half-demons like Shippo and Inuyasha, but he's not to be taken lightly, no matter who or what one is. I recognize him right off, despite the years, and relax instantly, even as the others tense, ready to defend against Sesshomaru.

"You can relax, guys, he ain't in any danger." I reply even as I replace my watch on my wrist. They stare at me.

"You're joking right? He just pops up in front of SESSHOMARU and you're telling me that he isn't in trouble?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Considering that I highly doubt Sesshomaru over there can even inflict the smallest amount of damage to a Kami, and that's pretty much what that guy can be considered, then yes, I do believe that's exactly what I'm telling you. Hi, Ellimist. What brings you to 15th century Japan?"

"The Ellimist?! He's there?!" demanded Jake.

"Yup, probably to bring me home to help you lot out, unless I miss my guess. There ain't nothing here to interest him save myself."

The blue-skinned being chuckled, his voice echoing with a resonance that no demon or human should have. It tended to do that occasionally, especially when he went for the first impressions. "That is correct." He revealed. "I am here to take you and your companions back home to assist in the war against the Yeerks." I notice that his voice seems to have a odd double-note to it.

I eye him curiously. "Are you speaking in both Japanese and English at the same time?" I ask, before realizing that I can feel his power on me and I have that same odd double-note. "Wait, did you spell me to do the same?"

"I did indeed do that, for it makes things easier in the long run. For now, but once we get back to your home, I will gift your friends with the ability to speak and understand English. But that is another matter for a later time. Right now, we must get you all back to the Animorphs."

I stared at him for a minute. "Um, Ellimist, you ARE aware that my friends here have no knowledge of my past whatsoever, right? They are unaware of what the Yeerks are and why I'm fighting them?"

"The Crayak had upped the ante with the Yeerks back in your home, my Alpha friend, and you will need more to your group then just you. You know your friends' own trustworthiness, and I will ask only that you tell me which you would like to leave behind."

I sighed and stared at my friends. Why, oh why does my life seem to never end? One war after another, and even the wars taking place during the 14th century weren't exactly very far from my little hovel. And NOW, just when the war against Naraku had finally ended and things could possibly be normal, and everyone settle down with normal lives, this has to happen. If he wasn't tied to the space-time continuum, like the Ellimist was, I swear I'd kill him. The Crayak, that is.

"Amber, what's going on?" asked Shippo nervously.

"I have to go home. There's another war being fought there, for all of humanity, with far more reaching consequences then just the ones that could've happened if Naraku had won here today. Myself and Jake and all our friends, we're fighting against the bad guys, the Yeerks you probably heard mentioned, and I need to be there to help. The Ellimist here, he's like a Kami, like I said, and he says that we'll need the help of everyone else. I will tell him who will stay and who will go, but I am to choose only the ones I know will help and not betray myself or my friends by joining in with the Yeerks."

"And what, pray tell, are Yeerks?" asked Sango, pronouncing the name carefully. It WAS an alien name, after all.

"Slugs, normal sized demon-like slugs that come from another planet altogether, like from another star. They enter through your ear and take over your brain and you can't control yourself anymore. They read your memories and act so like you that not even your closest best friend would be able to tell that they were talking to a fake, and you can't even do anything about it, you yourself have been reduced to simply a voice inside your head that only the Yeerk can hear."

"And you fight these? But how can you tell whose being controlled and who isn't?" asked Kagome, looking horrified.

"Well, we don't, but sometimes its easy enough to see. Yeerks must feed every three days on certain rays, like rays of the sun, only it comes from their home, rather then our sun's rays. Anyone controlled by a Yeerk will head to the center, called a Yeerk Pool, to allow their Yeerk to feed, while they hang around in locked cages until they can be infested again. And it seems that I must ask your help in this war. I'm sorry, so, so sorry, that I have to send you from one war to the next, but the Ellimist never lies about these things."

I'm sure I looked thoroughly miserable about this, since my friends surround me, looking determined. I stare at them, wondering what they were thinking.

"Well, if you need our help to fight these alien slugs and send them back to their little planet, then count me in. I ain't letting one of my friends go sacrifice herself without taking me along, no sir." Kagome states firmly.

"And you aren't leaving us behind either, Amber. You've helped us with our war, even when all we came to you for was room and board for a night. Now it's our turn to repay the favor." Miroku said rather cheerfully. "Maybe I don't have my wind tunnel anymore, but I'm sure that, alien or not, they will not like the effects of my sutras."

"And I ain't letting you get killed without me there to save your butt, like always. My claws are ready and waiting to tear into a few slugs, if that's what you need 'em to do." Inuyasha proclaims loudly.

I smile. "Very well, then. You I can trust, I already knew that. But the question remains, can I take anyone else with me and trust them to remain loyal?"

As one, we turn to Koga and Sesshomaru and their various hangers-on, who are watching us. Sesshomaru narrows his eyes.

"Hybrid, you will not be leaving me behind." He states without uncertainty.

"I can and I will, if I have no reason to trust you. You can't hurt me, Sesshomaru, and the Ellimist will, it seems, bend to my will on who comes with. If I can't trust you not to go turncoat on us, then I will not be taking you, it's as simple as that. So, what have you got to prove to me that you're as loyal as my friends?"

The taiyoukai (powerful demon, in rough translations) looks like he swallowed a lemon and that it was practically killing him to get the words out. "You have my word that I will harm or seek to harm only the Yeerks and their allies. As Lord of the Western Lands."

"Powerful stuff, that. Like an honor vow?" I question. When Sesshomaru nods tightly, and I sigh. "Very well. Do you wish to leave your retainers behind or keep them with? They shall be safe enough if they have someplace to go, but they might have to get involved in fighting if they come with."

"Rin will stay with me. The dragon comes along as her protector, but Jaken can stay here if that is your wish."

Jaken looked distraught and rather dismayed and I felt pity for him. All this time loyal to Sesshomaru, and he never got a single acknowledgement of it. Sesshomaru pretty much abused him. Poor toad.

"And you Koga? We probably can't take your entire pack, and you'd have to work alongside Inuyasha, but are you coming or going?"

The wolf demon looked somewhat pained and he shot a sorrowful look at Kagome. "I think it'd be better if I stayed here. The pack needs me, and I think that maybe Ayame is still chasing after me. Perhaps I should just settle down with her and have some pups. We need to start increasing our numbers after what Kagura did to them."

"We'll miss you Koga, if its any consolation. You were a good friend, your blind love for Kagome and the fights you got into with Inuyasha because of it aside. It was a pleasure knowing you, and who knows, maybe we'll meet up again. The Ellimist might bend to my will again and send everyone else home after everything is said and done, and maybe, just maybe, I'll come with. I've grown to like it here."

The wolf flashed a fang at me. "Yeah, I'll just bet. Well, see ya around, maybe. And good luck with those slugs!" and before we could say anything else, he was off, his pack waving at us and following behind. I turned to the Ellimist.

"Okay, do your stuff, you have my band of fighters. Jake, I'm signing off now, but I'll contact you when we land, and please have Scott and Ax ready, because we have stories to exchange, and Scott and Ax will be more able and willing to expound on details the rest of us cannot possibly hope to either know or understand. Or both."

"Right, will do. Jake, over and out." And my watch went back to being a watch. The Ellimist nodded at me, and lifted his arms, preparing to transport us. Everyone else gathered in a tight little pack around me, the de facto leader for this little mission, and I simply waited.

We wound up in front of Cassie's barn, or what seemed to be left of it. It appeared to be an empty building now, and what cages I could see inside were empty and had been for some time. The Ellimist pointed in the direction of the forest. "Travel through there to the valley I hid of the free Hork-Bajir, where the Animorphs, your Pack and their families wait. I have taken the liberty, seeing her attachment to them, to have the young miko's family transported there directly, and they have been told that their daughter and her companions will meet them there. Your friends can lead the way."

I nodded. "Very well, thanks Ellimist. I'll see you at war's end?"

"I will come, to transport any who wish it back to the era I took them from." He agreed. "Even yourself, if you wish. Good luck, Alpha Fox." And he disappeared into nothingness.

I looked to my companions. "Okay, first things first, disguises. We can't go romping even through the woods like this, because its bound to draw attention, and who knows where the Yeerks have spies and cameras out to watch for enemies. We catch the Yeerks' attention and we're dead meat, no question."

Picking up a few leaves from the ground, I used my kitsune magic to disguise them as perfectly normal Japanese tourists. Then I headed off in the direction I had been pointed. I fiddled with my watch and waited for Jake's face to reappear. It didn't take long. He looked faintly surprised to see me back on again so soon. "Hey Jake, can you send an agent to led us to the Hork-Bajir camp? Ellimist pointed us in what I'm assuming is the right direction and said that that is where you'd be, but we aren't going to get anywhere without a tour guide."

"Hey! I can understand you now!" Shippo yelled in shock, and I grinned. Leave it to the Ellimist.

"The Ellimist said he'd give you an understanding of my mother tongue earlier." I pointed out calmly, before turning to Jake. He nodded in understanding.

"I'll send Tobias. He'll meet you all at Ax's old scoop. Can you fly now? And your companions?"

"I can morph bird, if that's what you're asking, and my companions will get along okay. Several of them can fly, but I don't want to risk being seen, and their appearances aren't exactly as normal looking as a pair of raptors. They'll follow on the ground, but they can be fast."

Jake nodded. "Understood. Tobias will see you and yours shortly at Ax's old place. Later, and tell your gang that if all goes well, and it should if the Ellimist says that they have to help, then they'll be welcomed into the Animorphs Pack."

I smiled at him in answer and turned off the watch. I looked at my companions. "Ready to get started on this war of mine?" I asked.

Inuyasha looked determined and his eyes glinted with a fierce readiness to battle. It was the same face he wore whenever we went up against Naraku. His claws flexed. "If this lets us squish some alien slugs, then I'm ready." He stated firmly.

"As are the rest of us." stated Sesshomaru calmly, in his usual almost indifferent tones. I nodded and headed for Ax's place.

"Then follow me and we'll meet up with one of my other friends, who will lead us to where we need to be. Be warned, he's in bird form, and I will be shifting to bird form as soon as I know it's safe to, and we'll be flying pretty fast. You'll have to keep up on the ground, but you lot are fast, and can carry those who aren't, so I have faith in you."

"Can we not simply fly?" asked Miroku as he and the others fell along in the step behind me. I gave him a look. He nodded in understanding. "Ah, right. No risking attracting the Yeerks' attention. And we cannot assume another shape as you can, one less noticeable."

"Right you are, monk. As it stands, Kirara will be carrying you as she usually does, but on the ground, and a saber-tooth tiger with flaming appendages is already asking for it, no matter what charm I may have on her now. Not to mention the dragon. A DRAGON for crying out loud! Do you have ANY idea what sort of trouble we're asking for right now?"

"Do you not have dragons in this land?" asked Sesshomaru.

"That depends. Do dragons of make-believe stories count? And the only two-headed things most people see are stuffed statues of cats and dogs born with them in a museum dedicated to the odd and strange. Your pet is both two-headed and a dragon, so what's that tell you?"

There was a silence. I guess no one had a ready answer to what that told them.

Before they could come up with a response, we came up onto an old patch of land curved in oddly, with various brick-a-brack littered around it that one did not normally expect to see in a forest, and with a TV, still running on the electric cable system that it had been put on when it was first installed. It was showing commercials. Or, as my Andalite friend Ax likes to call them, "These Messages". Yeah, watching an alien watch TV can be fun.

And sitting there in all his glory is a red-tailed hawk with special markings on his wings that, even after a century, I'd still recognize anywhere. He sees us coming, of course he would with his super-sharp eyesight, and screamed at us, causing the over jumpy group behind me to leap into semi-battle stances. I snorted at them and made 'relax' gestures. The hawk snickered.

Then I smiled at the animal. "Hello Tobias. Long time no see, huh?"

The red-tailed hawk, once a boy named Tobias, nodded.

You know something? I've got to stop coming up with crazy ideas, and I've definantly got to stop being Gryffindor enough to post them. This is probably going to send me straight to no place pleasant when everything is said and done. And on my first real Inuyasha post too! (Not to mention Animorphs. Which I still have basic knowledge of, even if I haven't read ANY of the books for years.) No, I've no idea what the heck I'm doing, and I probably never will, either, so please don't ask. And if that Road Rovers writer reads this, I apologize for not remembering your name to give you credit for that story that inspired me to make genetically altered people. Thanks for that, by the way. Reviews welcome, and hopefully I won't get burned too badly by you flamers. Then again, perhaps I won't feel anything. Heaven knows that the kitchen gets hot as Hades a lot in summer...

Werewolf