A/N (Seacarda): Me and my sister decided that it would be cool if we put our two favourite shows together, so we did.
A/N (Kathryn): Yeah, pretty much. I could go all weird and pompous and say things like "This work is a collaborative effort between Seacarda Fox Shadow and Kathryn Shadow", but she's pretty much summed it up, so... Allons-y! :D
Disclaimer: Neither of us own either Doctor Who or InuYasha, but it's not from lack of trying.
-BAD WOLF-
Somewhere in Japan, shadows moved.
The shadows, incidentally, were cast by seven figures, cloaked in black, practically invisible in the night. The pale moonlight struck one of them and it flinched away as if burnt.
Their target lay oblivious before them, just barely out of reach of the forest's shade. One figure split apart from the others, slipping rapidly across the thin stream of treacherous luminance to hide in the shadows cast from the structure. The other six hesitated for a moment, but soon followed suit. In a neat line, the first one a couple of feet apart from the others, they slunk around to the nearest window. The leader glanced inside before clambering nimbly through the opening, completely silent, completely unseen by those who were to be his victims. One by one, all six slipped inside the building.
A scream tore through the night, then another and another, each terrified cry abruptly cut short. There were a couple of frenzied pounds on the walls and doors as people tried desperately to get away, but not a single one managed to break free.
And then, as suddenly as the cacophony began, everything was silent.
Seven figures slipped away into the night.
-BAD WOLF-
The TARDIS shuddered as she landed, throwing her occupants to the ground despite the fact that they had been clinging to the console. This might have had something to do with the fact that the Doctor had been rudely hitting her with an obnoxiously large mallet instead of trying to fly her properly, but of course nobody thought of that.
The Doctor laughed, delighted, and got to his feet, oblivious to his spaceship's irritation.
"Where are we?" asked Rose as he helped her up, smiling a little, infected with his enthusiasm.
"No idea," said the Doctor, eyes glittering with excitement, and ran to the door. Now that the TARDIS was beginning to power down, Rose could hear the shouts of a fight outside.
"Pub?" she guessed, her delight dimming a little with the prospect. It would be just her luck if, just when the Doctor put random co-ordinates in, she landed somewhere completely ordinary. It would be only fair, after all; every time he tried to take her home, they ended up on somewhere like Raxacoricofallapatorius instead— although that might have been due to the Time Lord's incessant fear of Rose's mother.
The Doctor shrugged nonchalantly and opened the door. As soon as he poked his head outside, a large and ugly something-which-might-have-been-a-head-at-some-point flew towards him. He jumped back, startled, and it landed with a nauseating squish on the grating.
It dripped obscenely.
The Doctor sniffed dispassionately, unaware of the fact that Rose had covered her mouth and nose with a hand to keep from retching. He was equally oblivious to the glare she was giving him for whatever alien trait he possessed which allowed him to be unaffected by the stench now wafting through the normally clinical TARDIS air.
"Earth, Japan, Feudal Era," he pronounced with finality, hands in his pockets as he regarded the severed hulk.
"Right," said Rose, daring to remove her hand from her face. Her voice was slightly nasal as she fought not to breathe. "Is that bad?"
The Doctor shrugged with a noise that sounded suspiciously like "meh". "Depends," he called back as he vanished. A moment later he spoke again, presumably not to her.
"Oh, you are beautiful!"
Rose assumed that it would be safe for at least two seconds, stepped carefully around the head still oozing on the floor and chanced a look outside.
Instantly she darted out, closed the door and half-ran forwards to stop just before the object of the Doctor's fascination.
"You are! Look at you!" The Doctor whipped his glasses out of his pocket and put them on in one liquid motion, still grinning at the creature.
The creature in question was actually the most humanoid thing Rose had seen all day, not counting the Doctor, and looked to be about seventeen. Voluminous scarlet fabric was draped around his— well, she assumed it was a him, although there was really no telling with aliens— form. His skin was unnaturally pale, his eyes massive and golden in an angular face. Pure white hair flowed down narrow shoulders, nearly hiding twin dog's ears covered in snowy fur.
Rose's fingers twitched.
Fangs poked out from behind barely parted lips, his long fingers ended in nails that looked suspiciously like claws, and one hand grasped the sort of sword which made Rose half-wonder if he wasn't inadequate in some other way.
Meh, she'd faced worse. She reached out and touched one of his ears with a fingertip. It was almost excruciatingly soft.
He blinked at her.
Encouraged by his severe lack of a violent reaction, she caressed the ear with her fingers, feeling the smooth fur slide under her skin. Her wrist grazed his hair and that was soft too.
He flinched away, suddenly a few feet farther from her than he had been, and she pouted a little bit at the loss of the ability to pet him. The Doctor hardly ever brought her to places with furry creatures, and, bereft of the opportunity to take advantage of the situation, she was feeling just a little bit upset.
"Who the hell are you?" growled the creature— quite literally, in fact. His fangs suddenly seemed a lot bigger.
"Oh, I'm sorry," said the Doctor, straightening. "Terribly rude of us. I'm the Doctor and this is Rose. And you would be...?"
The creature held his sword a little more threateningly. Rose, coolly unfazed by the movement, absently wondered if the massive weapon wasn't a sort of security blanket.
"Why should I tell you?" he snapped suspiciously at them, golden eyes glittering malevolently.
The Doctor opened his mouth. "Well..."
Footsteps approached rapidly, accompanied by laboured breathing. "Inuyasha!" came a voice as a visually fifteen-year-old presumably-human girl came running up the hill. A bow was slung over her back, amusingly incongruous against what looked suspiciously like a school uniform. "What did I tell you about going off without me?"
"Is that your name?" asked the Doctor, apparently delighted.
Presumably-Inuyasha opened his mouth. "Kagome, I—"
"I can't take it any more!" she shrieked at him before drawing herself up to her full height, which really wasn't very much but apparently frightened Inuyasha. She inhaled slowly and purposefully, eyes blazing, and forcefully ground out one single word.
"SIT!!"
Without warning Inuyasha's necklace glowed and he crashed to the ground, face-first, with a rather undignified yelp.
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. Rose grinned.
"Can I get one of those for him?"
The Time Lord whipped around. "Oi!"
The girl, presumably Kagome, seemed to notice them for the first time. "Oh," she said, suddenly seemingly harmless. "Who are you?"
Inuyasha dragged himself from the ground, spitting a little mud out of his mouth and glaring at the girl.
"I'm Rose and this is the Doctor," said Rose.
"Your hair's glowing," said Kagome, apparently fascinated.
Rose blinked. "O... kay," she said.
The Doctor glanced at her hair as if to check.
"I can't help noticing," said the Doctor, hands in his pockets, "that there's a large and obnoxious head currently in my spaceship."
Inuyasha raised his eyebrows, frowning a bit, and opened his mouth to say something presumably rude.
"Specifically," he carried on, "what appears to be the head of a praying mantis demon."
Silence.
"Anyone care to tell me why that is?"
Rose gave him an odd look. "Praying mantis demon?"
He turned to her. "Mmm."
"Demon?"
He nodded, opening his mouth and preparing to go on one of those rants that basically translated into calling her a stupid ape in some shape or form. She raised a hand to interrupt him.
"There were demons," she said, "in Japan?"
He bobbed his head complacently. "Well, I say demons, they were actually just a bunch of random aliens that crashed a few centuries ago. The people here called them demons and it stuck. Our friend over there—" he gestured at Inuyasha— "is a demon. Well, half-demon. Well, half-dog demon."
Rose nodded slowly.
"How do you know so much about me?" asked Inuyasha sharply, waving his sword around a little as if to remind them of the fact that he was holding one. "Who are you? And if you don't answer me, properly, this time..." He trailed off ominously, glaring at them.
The Doctor rolled his eyes, opening his mouth again.
"We told you," interrupted Rose for him. "I'm Rose, this is the Doctor. That's it." The Doctor glared at her a bit for the interruption of something that would surely antagonise the half-demon, but she casually ignored him. She ignored Inuyasha as well and stepped a little closer to Kagome. "So," she said. "You said 'sit' and Dogboy over there fell down. How does that work?"
Inuyasha glared at her. His ears twitched in irritation.
Kagome paused, her finger flittering up to touch her chin. "I don't really know," she said.
Rose grimaced. "Pity. Would have liked one of those on him." She gestured at the Doctor.
"Oi!"
Kagome couldn't quite bite back a laugh. Inuyasha just blinked, getting increasingly confused at his companion's casual acceptance of the newcomers.
The half-dog-demon gestured at the TARDIS with his sword. "What the hell is that thing?" he demanded, irked at being so ignored.
"Inuyasha," said Kagome warningly.
Inuyasha opened his mouth. The Doctor was apparently oblivious.
"This? Oh, this is my... spaceship," he said, abruptly giving up trying to come up with an explanation that Inuyasha would understand.
"What?" The creature looked at the TARDIS like it might bite him.
Kagome sighed. "Oh, come on, Inuyasha! I told you what spaceships are!"
Inuyasha and the Doctor blinked at her. "You did?" they asked, perfectly in unison. The half-dog-demon glared at him.
"Well," said Rose, quite sensibly she thought, "she doesn't look like she comes from around here."
The Doctor's brown eyes flickered up and down the girl for a moment. "No," he said thoughtfully. "She doesn't."
Kagome looked at them almost fearfully. Rose was getting a little confused at her apparently random mood swings. "What do you mean?"
"In fact," said the Doctor, stepping forward, "I would almost dare to guess that you're actually from the 21st century, Kagome. That is your name, right?"
She nodded.
"Any chance you could tell me why that is?"
"Why would you want to know?" snapped Inuyasha defensively. He waved the sword around again.
"Oh, put that away," muttered the Doctor sulkily, returning the creature's glare. "Have we tried to kill you yet?"
"No, but even so—"
"Inuyasha," interrupted Kagome. The creature looked like he was going to protest, but then turned it around and pushed it into a sheath that was far too small for the weapon. The Doctor's eyes widened in interest.
"Did you come in through the well?" asked Kagome.
"Well?" inquired the Doctor, confused. "What well?"
-BAD WOLF-
The well was, as its name suggested, a well. It looked rather abused, almost like something far too large to hold it had been shoved through. Past that, it wasn't a particularly assuming object, but the Doctor was grinning as he scanned it with his sonic screwdriver.
"Oh, that is just brilliant," he said happily. "Spacio-temporal distortion hidden under the earth. Someone dug a well, found the rift, and now..." He smiled a little more widely.
"We're the only ones who can get through," Kagome said helpfully. "Because of the Shikon Jewel."
The Doctor spun around.
"The whatsit?" inquired Rose, feeling just a bit left out of everything.
"Show me," ordered the Doctor.
"This," said Kagome, pulling at a chain around her neck to bring it out from under her shirt. A broken crystal which was probably once completely round dangled from the end, glittering in the sunlight.
"Ooh," he said. "Look at that." He started playing with the screwdriver again, turning the tip to adjust the setting before he pointed it at the glittering jewel. Inuyasha bristled.
"What is it?" inquired Rose, calculating the chances of touching Inuyasha's ears again while he was distracted.
"It's a psychic extrapolator with a telepathic complex," said the Doctor.
Rose nodded slowly. "Meaning?"
"Meaning," said the Doctor, "it takes pre-existing psychic energy and makes more of it. A lot more. And it's also bound to the telepathic signals of its owner." He grinned. "This is brilliant!"
"And it lets them fall through that rift, does it?"
"Yep!" He turned his blinding grin on her. Kagome gave them an odd look. Inuyasha blinked. "A perfect little crack stretching from here to the 21st century. Nothing else. Completely harmless."
"Might prefer that over your flying," muttered Rose.
"Oi!" said the Doctor again. "I can give you the entire universe, all of time and space, and you'd rather go through a little rift which only goes to two different times?" He pouted a bit. "You wound me."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't start that again."
"I thought the Shikon was magical," interrupted Kagome, brow furrowed in confusion.
The Doctor shrugged. "If you want to call the exacerbation of telepsychic energies 'magic'."
"But..." She looked down at the shard. "How could technology do any of this?" she asked.
The Doctor raised his eyebrows.
"It's alien," said Rose. "Isn't it?"
"Mm," said the Doctor in affirmation. "Must've come down to Earth when the demons did."
"Lord Inuyasha!" came a small voice. The half-demon glanced at his shoulder, where Rose could almost make out a miniscule figure jumping up and down in something which might have been distress.
"Oh, so you've finally shown up, have you?" he asked him, derision dripping from his tone. "It's not too dangerous for you now, is it?"
"I was visiting a monastery not far from here," said the creature. Rose stepped closer, squinting at him. He looked oddly like a very large and almost not-quite humanoid flea. "I went to collect information about the Shikon, but when I came to the place, it was ransacked!"
Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and flicked the creature away. He landed with a splat on Rose. She jumped back, but he irritatingly kept hold.
The Doctor walked over to her to get a closer look.
The flea-like creature blinked up at her for a moment before stabbing his beak-like mouth into her arm and sucking.
"Oi!" she yelped, swatting him before she thought about it. He made an odd noise and fell to the ground.
"Sorry," she said quickly, kneeling. "Are you hurt?"
"He's fine," said Inuyasha dismissively. "Happens all the time. The monastery, on the other hand..."
"Yeah," said the Doctor thoughtfully. "That sounds interesting, actually. Where is this monastery?"
The flea stood up. "May I ask who you two are?"
"I'm the Doctor," said the Doctor, sounding a little bit irritated at having to repeat himself. "This is Rose."
"Do you think that it had something to do with the Shikon?" asked Kagome, kneeling by the flea.
"Quite possibly," whirred the little creature. "The destruction was nothing like a mere mortal could produce, and whatever it was only went for the monks without touching anything in the building."
"Ooh," said the Doctor. If he had Inuyasha's ears, Rose was sure they would be pricking up.
"Then let's go," said Inuyasha. "I'm getting bored."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "And I assume that you're going to hunt down whatever it was that did this and just kill it?" he inquired scathingly.
"Well, what else am I gonna do?" he snapped back. "Sit here?"
"Actually," said Kagome pleasantly, "you could s—"
Inuyasha darted over to her and put his hand across her mouth with inhuman speed.
"Mmmph," she said, glaring at him, her entire countenance clearly telling him that as soon as he removed his hand she was going to say it.
Rose bit back a laugh.
"Where is this monastery?" asked the Doctor again.
"Like you're coming with us," snarled Inuyasha, hand still firmly clamped over Kagome's mouth. "This has nothing to do with you."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows again. "Oh, it doesn't?" he inquired.
"Mmphh mner, Mmnyshph," said Kagome. "Mrr vn—"
"I think what she's trying to say," said Rose diplomatically, "is that we could help you."
Kagome nodded fiercely, crossing her arms.
Inuyasha tensed for a moment, then rolled his eyes a bit. "Fine," he said. "See if I care." He took his hand away from Kagome's mouth and began to stalk away from her.
She made good on her silent promise.
"Inuyasha, SIT!!"
-BAD WOLF-
Seacarda A/N: This is my first story, so please be nice...
Kathryn A/N: Review or die a very slow death at the hands of chibi!Inuyasha.