Note: This is the sequel to my previous story, Infinity, and it probably won't make that much sense if you didn't read that. :)
She looked up from under shaggy black bangs, panting heavily, eyes squinted in the sunlight reflecting off the snow all around them. The man in front of her leaned forward, pulling her face up roughly by the chin, and said something that made the other men surrounding her laugh. She jerked her face away, snarling at him in a way that needed no translation, but he only chuckled as she thrashed against her bonds again. Her heart was pounding, but as she met his eyes he saw only burning fury.
He moved away, saying something else to his men before swinging easily aboard his horse, a rough, stocky little thing that sidled about as she was thrown in front of him, grunting as she landed on her stomach. He put a hand absently on her back to keep her in place as she thrashed, soothing his mount with a surprisingly gentle murmur.
"I swear to all the gods I'm going to burn you alive," she hissed at him, trying to wriggle around and bite his thigh. It got her only a slap that made her head spin for a moment. He sent her a hard glance and she subsided for the moment, reluctantly, though her bruised body relished the rest. It didn't last; they began to trot away and the bouncing motion sent the pommel of the saddle directly into her stomach, taking her breath away. "Shit," she muttered. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" Her teeth were gritted as she shook her head, testing the rough hide bonds around her wrists and ankles once again, to no avail. Her captor paid no attention, breath pluming into the chill air as he spoke to his men.
She closed her eyes, bracing her body against each step the mountain pony took. She tensed suddenly as she picked up a familiar presence up ahead. Oh, thank goodness. It's about damn time, she thought irritably. This is probably going to hurt...
The girl was correct. The transition from near-absolute silence to chaos filled with the screams of both men and horses was startling, even though she knew it was coming. Her captor didn't bother to stop her worm-like wriggle off his horse, concentrating too hard on staying alive. She hit the ground hard and began to roll away from the hoofbeats all around her.
"I want the one who had me!" she screamed, knowing her rescuer would hear her. "Mine!" she added again for emphasis. She heard only shrieks and the clang of swords behind her. When she finally snaked her way to a distance she judged safe, she flipped around, eyebrows going up as she saw the carnage. Already done, huh?
Her rescuer looked up and fixed her with a golden stare, one boot on the neck of the man who had captured her, ignoring his broken pleas. "Are you okay?"
She felt a shudder go through her at his deep voice. "I'd be better if you untied me," she told him dryly, shivering again at his rumbling laugh. In the blink of an eye, he was beside her and she was free. She rubbed her wrists, wincing. "Ow."
"You better kill him, girl, he's getting away. Plus if you don't I really, really wanna."
She exhaled and stood up, holding out a hand. He put her bow and quiver in it, and she sighed, feeling whole again. Putting an arrow to the string, she shuffled with aching muscles over to her former captor, who was dragging a broken leg behind him in the bloody, trampled snow as he tried to get away.
"Nope," she said softly, hair whipping in the wind as she pulled her bowstring taut, setting one foot on his chest. It was done in a moment, and she left her arrow, not wanting to dig it out. Half the time they broke anyway. Barbed heads tended to stick firmly and deep inside their targets.
Inuyasha came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She didn't wince, but he knew it hurt her; he always knew one way or another when she got injured. Since he already knew, she didn't protest when he picked her up and bounded away, leaving the bloody slaughter behind them. She looked up at him from the safety of his arms as they went like the wind, and his hair was purer than the snow.
"Did you take care of the horses?"
"Course."
"Quickly? They didn't suff-"
"Dammit, I told you, I took care of 'em." The voice, gruff if not truly angry, pulled her out of her heavy sleep with a start. She sat up, shivering a little, and scooted closer to the fire. A hot cup of something steaming was pushed into her hands and she looked up into the smiling dark eyes of her friend.
"Thanks, Sango,"
"It's horrible tea," the slayer said with a laugh. "You might not thank me once you try it."
"It's warm, that's all I really want," Kagome said sleepily, yawning. Sango's eyes didn't miss the greenish bruise on her cheek or the tender way she stretched out her legs, but she didn't say anything. If she were hurt too badly, Inuyasha would be behaving much more irritably than he was, and probably glued to her side as well.
"So, how did the whole captive experience go?" the ponytailed woman said wryly.
"Uh, pretty good, actually. I know where we are. The front lines are further east. These ones thought they would sneak over the pass and come around behind the armies." She shook her head a little. "Idiots. Like thirty men are going to do any damn good."
"How did you figure all that out?" Sango had one hand tugging on her hair as she always did when curious. "I still can't believe we got lost..."
"They were messing around on their maps in front of me. I mean, east is my best guess, it's the only thing that makes sense based on their motions. We wouldn't have been lost too much longer, Inuyasha could have followed our trail back, it just would have taken forever." She yawned again widely. "We need another Huojin, from here," she joked. As if by magic he materialized beside her, and she grinned up at him.
"You're replacing me already?" he laughed.
"Funny, funny. Just wishing we spoke this language."
"Mm." The blue eyed man nodded, pulling up the hood on his thick leather coat and then stretching his hands to the heat of the fire.
"How did you guys find me? Inuyasha's nose?" Sango and Huojin both nodded at the same time. "Good, I was getting really tired of those assholes. Anyway, now we know where we're headed and you all got me, we can meet back up with the troops, get back to business. I bet they're missing us right now. I wanna get back to beating down those northern scum."
She said it with a bloodthirsty smirk that looked foreign on her delicate features, but Sango returned the look.
"Oh, I know, I can't wait to see what they've cooked up this time! I wish we hadn't gotten separated after that battle... Hope Miroku's all right." the slayer mused. She patted her hiraikotsu as if it were a dog.
"Kirara's with him, right? He'll be fine. But you didn't have to come after me, I would have gotten away eventually," Kagome said grumpily.
"Maybe you shouldn't have gotten caught, then!" Inuyasha snapped, rising from his seat across the fire and stalking off into the dusk, ignoring the light snowfall dusting down. His ears were both back, and as he passed her Changchang gave him a startled look.
Kagome didn't even blink. "I would have gotten away," she repeated, taking a grateful sip of her steaming tea. "Oh, urgh, what is this?" she yelped.
Sango laughed at her friend's expression, but she exchanged a worried glance with Huojin. He shrugged a little, looking discomfited. "Well, we'll be back with the army soon enough, four days of travel at most, I would imagine," she said. "We didn't wander too far looking for you. These mountains are like a maze, though."
"Yeah, we'll be back fast now we're not all lost," Kagome snorted. She downed the rest of her tea and sighed, stretching slowly with a grimace. "Ow. Stupid bastards. I'm gonna pass back out, I think," she said, grabbing her bow and setting it beside her as she curled up beside the fire. "Wake me up early?"
Huojin nodded, standing up and wandering towards his horse. "Sure thing."
Sango stayed by the fire, unaware that her brow was crinkled as she watched him walk off. "Kagome," she said softly, but her friend was already asleep and only shifted slightly. The slayer sighed heavily, poking her toes close to the flames. This is not good. We are all breaking apart, she thought sadly. I think the monk didn't even try to follow us when we got separated in that battle... he's so angry that I came with Kagome to fight, he didn't want to, and Kagome and Inuyasha are fighting all the time... she buried her head in her armored arms with a soft moan. She peeked up a while later as Inuyasha came padding silently back out of the darkness, but didn't say anything, figuring he didn't want to talk. He smoothed a blanket over Kagome with a scowl that belied his tender hands and then sat on his haunches, chewing on his bottom lip. It surprised her when he spoke, voice low.
"She's kinda worrying me," he said simply, eyes flicking to the sleeping girl.
"She's changing. That's not necessarily a bad thing," Sango said carefully, hesitating a little.
"You only say that because you like fighting beside another woman," the hanyou said accusingly. She just shrugged.
"I'm glad to see her becoming stronger. The better warrior she becomes, the more chance she has of surviving. She is still Kagome."
"Barely! She... shit, she cusses now and I don't fuckin' like it one bit." He didn't appear to be at all aware of the irony of that statement.
"Inuyasha, this is normal. She fought demons before. Now she's fighting humans. It's different. It's to be expected that she would change."
He shook his head raggedly. "She won't talk to me anymore." It was said in an almost pleading tone, and Sango saw pain in his his eyes. "I don't want to go back. I want to go home."
Sango regarded him. "I don't think things can ever go back to the way they were." She was very surprised to feel her eyes burning with the beginning of tears, and from Inuyasha's sideways glance she knew he noticed them, but he politely looked away as she got herself under control.
"Yeah. Anyway, guess we gotta go back. She's going back with or without us."
"She stays with the front lines to help," Sango said quietly. "Kagome has always helped people. Now she has a whole country to help, she feels it is her destiny to save them. The northern invaders are a terrible people- with the drought right now, all of China would fall in a single season. It's a good cause. Maybe she hasn't changed that much."
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Except now she likes it." Sango blinked at him in confusion. "Killin', I mean."
"Oh." They both looked at the blanket-covered lump that was Kagome. Silence fell, broken only by the howl of the wind and the popping of the fire, though Inuyasha's powerful ears could vaguely pick up the sound of Huojin murmuring to his horse.
"I wish the monk was here, he's good at talkin' sense into people," he muttered. When Sango didn't reply he glanced up, raising one dark brow as he saw her gazing over his shoulder at the man and his horse. She twitched a little as he waved a hand, and he was surprised to see her blushing a little.
"Oh! Yes. I do too. I miss him." She said it firmly, trying to ignore the ridiculous and completely unfounded flush creeping up her cheeks. He looked at her sharply but chose not to say anything. He just grunted and stared back into the flickering orange flames, absently running a thumb over Tetsusaiga's hilt and trying not to worry about the tiny archer snoring contently across from him. She's got the blood of humans on her hands now, and I'm still not sure it's for a cause that's right. We used to fight things we knew were evil, but humans are always fucking fighting, why should we suddenly get involved? He shook his head roughly. I know she wants to protect this country, but I never thought it would go this far. It's too far. Damn meddling dragons! Damn this whole country. The hanyou growled low in his throat and stood up abruptly again, going back out into the darkness once more.
Author says: So? Do you like it? This is obviously set a while after the end of Infinity. They've been helping the Chinese armies for a while now, like Xia requested; they just got separated for a bit trying to save Kagome, who has obviously changed quite a bit during all the fighting. Am I crazy? Is this totally unbelievable? Or is it okay? Thanks for reading! :)