Sorry for the delay, folks! I couldn't post earlier with the site having problems (again!).

Thanks to snowecat and Surfbratt for their reviews! It's always great to hear from my readers!

OoOoOo

Chapter 36:

"Shards at two o'clock," Kagome muttered. "Gotta be Koga."

Inuyasha tightened his fingers over hers. "Yeah – can smell the mangy wolf. Everyone ready for a visitor?"

He got nods from Sango, Miroku, and Shippo – and a mew from Kirara. The demon cat did not bother transforming – she knew this particular scent well.

Koga spun into the clearing and came to a halt several feet away, his blue eyes narrowing at the sight of Kagome's hand in Inuyasha's.

"What's this?"

The wolf demon took a belligerent stance, but Inuyasha did not draw his weapon, only laying his hand on the hilt in readiness. Beside him, Kagome tensed, ready to drop Inuyasha's hand and reach for an arrow.

"I told you not to touch my woman."

"She's not your woman and never has been, Koga," Inuyasha bit out through clenched teeth, showing a great deal of restraint. "Kagome is my mate now."

Koga's nostrils expanded, testing the air to see if Inuyasha spoke truly. His head jerked back and his eyes widened.

"No!" The wolf seemed to deflate, shock curling him to the ground. "Kagome?"

"Yes, Koga," Kagome said softly. "It's true."

"But you – I – we – we were…"

With a glance at Inuyasha, Kagome dropped her hold on the hanyou's hand and went forward to touch Koga's shoulder. He brought up a clawed hand and placed it over hers, his eyes begging her to deny what his nose told him was true.

"Koga… I was never yours – only Inuyasha's. You'd best accept it."

Koga's face suddenly twisted with anger. "I'll kill the bastard! I'll kill him and then take you as mine!"

The wolf demon surged to his feet, knocking Kagome aside, and lunged at Inuyasha. Inuyasha merely sidestepped and clouted Koga on the head as he passed. Koga aimed a kick at his rival, which turned out to be a very bad move. Koga was fast, but Inuyasha was faster, grabbing the wolf's ankle and twisting so that Koga fell to the ground. Before he could get up again, Inuyasha pounced on him, pinning him to the ground and snarled in his face.

"Submit!"

"Never!" Koga spit at him.

Inuyasha ignored the spittle trailing down his cheek. "Submit or I will have to tear your throat out, you mangy wolf. Then your clan will never be revived. You want that? Do you?"

Koga went pale. "No." He swallowed hard, then exposed his throat to Inuyasha's bared fangs. The wolf demon winced as Inuyasha gave him a hard nip, but did not draw blood.

"Alright then. I'm gonna let you up and you're gonna sit and give us a listen. Got that?"

"Yeah."

Inuyasha moved from his position and sat cross-legged in front of Koga. The wolf demon slowly sat up, glaring around at the others who were arranging themselves in a semi-circle around himself and Inuyasha.

"I want you and the rest of your pack to join with us, Koga," Inuyasha said. "Sesshomaru has promised support and men – and I now have men of my own. We're going after Naraku en masse and I'd like you with us. We stand a better chance of getting that bastard if we all work together."

Koga looked around suspiciously. "Men, eh? Don't see any."

"They're at my estate."

"Estate? You?" Koga began to laugh. "You're nothing but a worthless mutt!"

Inuyasha bared a fang. "A worthless mutt that can kick your tail any time I want. Sesshomaru and I have reconciled, and he's given me my inheritance from our father."

"This is correct, Koga," Miroku said. "Inuyasha and Sesshomaru have reconciled their differences. Inuyasha is now master of Dawn Mist. Have you heard of it?"

"No. We stay away from Sesshomaru's holdings. No sense picking a fight…" Koga grimaced at Inuyasha's grin. "Ah – shaddup."

"If you fight Naraku with us, you'll have to accept our command – but I will demand that you be given a voice and allowed input into our strategies. If you choose not to help us, then all I'll ask is that you stay the hell out of the way."

"I wanna talk to Sesshomaru before I say yea or nay." Koga's eyes narrowed. "Don't want either of you playing us false."

"Fair enough. We're on our way now to the castle. Come with us and I'll get you your audience with Sesshomaru."

"Alright then."

As everyone got to their feet, Koga suddenly went insubstantial and faded away. Miroku and Sango stared as the forest about them also disappeared, revealing a bare-walled empty room.

Inuyasha stretched and grinned toothily at the others. "That went well, I think."

"It's a good simulation of what might happen when we encounter Koga again," Kagome agreed. "It won't go exactly like that, though."

Inuyasha put his arm about her shoulders. "No – but it gives us an idea of how it should go. Y'know that mangy wolf won't let you go easily."

"Well," Miroku said. "If you're going to tell him that we have Sesshomaru's support, maybe it's a good idea to make sure that we do."

"Ahem."

Miroku jumped a good foot in the air, and spun to meet the amused gaze of the demon lord in question.

"Lord Sesshomaru, sir! I didn't hear you come in."

"I will state now for the record, that my brother Inuyasha has the support of the Lord of the West in his fight against Naraku. That means, monk, that I will lend my considerable battle experience to Inuyasha's cause, as well as supplies, equipment and men. Clear enough for you?"

"Yes, my lord. Very generous!" Miroku bowed low.

"Naraku has caused enough trouble for everyone," Sesshomaru said. "I would see to the eradication of this blight on our land."

OoOoOo

"Well, here they are," Tamisé said, as he paced next to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. "These are the people who would go with you – if you'll have them."

Sixteen men and four women stood ranged in a neat line. More than half held themselves at attention, indicating their military training. Sesshomaru was impressed, although he wore his formal, impassive face. The four females were all ex-Marines and looked every bit as tough as Tamisé had promised. They would definitely NOT be a liability as the demon lord had feared.

As Inuyasha was familiar with them all, introductions were made for Sesshomaru's benefit. The demon lord stopped in front of a black man as tall as himself and impressively solid. From the man's stance, Sesshomaru guessed that this was one of the ex-Marines.

"And you – Lambert, is it? – why do you wish to come with us?"

"I believe you have need of our expertise, sir." The reply was snapped out, but the dark eyes never wavered from their focus on an imaginary spot on the wall.

"You realize that you cannot bring your modern weapons? That you will have to make do with weapons that we will provide you with?"

"Yes, sir. Not a problem, sir."

Sesshomaru permitted himself a tiny smile. "Not a problem, eh? How have you been trained, Lambert? That is, what weapons are you familiar with that are found in my era?"

"Sir, I have skills with the quarterstaff, katanna and bow, as well as hand-to-hand. I have a black belt in karate, sir, and fourth rank in holhsi."

"Hmmm." Sesshomaru walked around the man, who held himself perfectly still under the rather disconcerting examination. "And this man is an example of what these others are capable of?"

Tamisé grinned. "Every one of 'em."

"There will be no objections to my brother and I testing them directly? Lambert – what say you?"

"No objections, sir."

"Good. Can you set us up then, Tamisé?"

"Of course. You may use this room for as long as you require."

"My thanks. Lambert, I believe I should like to start with you. The rest of you may have seats in the observation room."

Inuyasha shifted his weight from foot to foot uncertainly as Tamisé began to shepherd the rest out. "Oniisan? Shall I stay?"

"Yes, please do. You now hold tenth rank in holhsi – am I correct, Inuyasha?"

"Yes."

"Then you will be testing Lambert's martial arts skills. Begin with that, if you will, Inuyasha. Then we shall test the others one by one. This afternoon, after they have all had a chance to rest and eat, we shall test their weapons skills. Cerberus, time the match if you please. Five minutes should suffice."

Sesshomaru stood against the wall, out of the way as the two men squared off against each other. He knew that Inuyasha understood the objective here – to see if the candidate was as good as he said he was. Lambert looked as if he could break the slender hanyou in two with just one of those ham-sized fists, but looks could be deceiving. Inuyasha was quite capable of snapping the man's neck before he could even begin to move – and everyone in that room knew it.

Inuyasha grinned at his opponent. "Land just one good shot, Dwayne, and you're a shoe-in."

Lambert grunted. "I intend to."

"Begin," Sesshomaru called out.

OoOoOo

Sesshomaru let himself into the observation room of the training area that Cerberus had told him Mavis was using. Although he knew that everything he saw was generated and operated by Cerberus, it still gave the demon lord an uncomfortable start when he realized that Mavis had set herself up against Kanna.

Now normally, seeing an adult woman up against what appeared to be a little girl would be no cause for concern, except that Kanna was no little girl. A demon of the worst sort, she depended on stealth and the ability of her mirror to suck the soul right out of a mere human's body, leaving the victim helpless. The mirror was also a scrying device, so that Kanna was a double threat with her mirror able to show events taking place at a distance.

Well, Mavis was about to change all that. There were spells and other devices that could disable a scrying mirror, and the mage was trying each one to see which would be most effective. She finally settled on three spells that would work, but they would each require a fair amount of her energy to maintain.

Mavis knew from Kagome that a person's soul would be sucked out by the mirror if they were unfortunate enough to look into it. Breaking the mirror was one way of dealing with this menace, but not so easy to accomplish. The child was always with a defender of some sort, whether it be Kohaku, Kagura or even Naraku himself. Kagome had even tried one of her arrows on the mirror with rather mixed results. Perhaps a feint at one of her protectors, disguising a direct attack on the demon herself would work.

The mage worked out a few simulations with Cerberus, and finally decided that their best chance of taking Kanna out was when she was with Kohaku. He was a formidable opponent on his own, with his primary weapon suitable for both long-range and close-quarter use, but he could not fight several determined warriors at once. All it needed was for one of them to take his weapon 'out of play', and the others could close in. As dangerous as the boy was, he was no match for three or four of Tamisé's Krull-fighters or ex-Marines.

Sesshomaru came into the room and paced over to the frozen tableau, as Mavis sat cross-legged on the floor, writing copious notes into a notebook.

"An interesting solution," he commented.

"Hmmph." Mavis did not look up from her writing. "Kagura ain't the only dangerous demon-on-a-leash that Naraku keeps. Everyone tends to dismiss Kanna because she looks like a kid. To my mind, she's the most dangerous one. She's a sneaky little bitch and apparently loyal to a fault. Kagura – well, Inuyasha has reason to believe she'd betray Naraku in a heartbeat – literally."

"She would," Sesshomaru agreed, "but Naraku has control of her heart – literally."

"Do you think she might switch sides if we could get her heart away from Naraku?"

Sesshomaru shrugged. "Perhaps. How do you propose we go about doing that?"

"Well, those people that want to go with you – some of them are expert in what we call covert operations. If we knew the location of Naraku's castle, they would be able to go in and possibly retrieve the heart."

"It cannot be that simple," Sesshomaru said. "The atmosphere – the miasma alone would kill them."

"We have things called gas masks. Don't know if they'd be allowed to take them, though. Hmmm… should see what I have in terms of spells to deal with that stuff. Too bad that Kelly isn't coming. She can turn invisible, you know."

"Invisible?"

"Yeah. If she wants, she can breeze past any security system known to man. Even Cerberus can't detect her. When she really focuses, she becomes 'invisible', in other words, she can walk right past you and you'd never sense her – your mind just sort of ignores her presence entirely."

"An interesting talent."

"One that apparently came in quite handy when they were fighting off the Glonds. Between her and Lili, who can literally walk through walls, they were able to get to the main bridge and disable some of the systems before their presence was discovered." Mavis looked up at her demon and grinned. "Kelly's a lot more dangerous than you think, Skippy. She and Christian make a good pair. By the way, have you guys sat down with Christian yet to go over strategies?"

"We'll be starting that tomorrow. Today, Inuyasha and I are testing those warriors that have asked to come with us."

"Then what are you doing here?"

Sesshomaru smiled. "Inuyasha spent the morning testing their martial arts skills and has just chased the last one around the room. We are letting them rest and eat, and then the afternoon will be spent testing their weaponry skills. I came, sweet one, to see if I could interest you in lunch."

Mavis set down her pen and stretched. "Mmmm. Are we talking food or…?"

"Food – for the moment."

He bent and lifted Mavis to her feet. Very gently, he pulled the mage to him, his right arm circling her shoulders, his left hand drifting down her back to cup her buttocks. He pressed her against him, listening as her heartbeat accelerated and she gave a small gasp.

"But if we eat quickly enough…"

Mavis giggled. "You're terrible, you are."

"Mmmm." Sesshomaru nuzzled under her ear. "Yes, I am."

OoOoOo

Kirsten and Spider decided to split the work of performing twenty physicals in a short period of time. All of the twenty people had been accepted by Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. Thankfully, none of them had allergies that would require medication of any sort.

She had just spent the last twenty minutes lecturing the four women on how to handle their monthly cycles in more primitive conditions when Spider came in with a locked case.

"Special delivery from Atlantis."

"That the contraceptive inserts?"

Spider nodded. "They sent up enough for everyone going back, women included. We'll have to schedule them to come in. You know how to do these?"

"I was going to ask Briar if I could borrow Leager for a day or two. He's experienced in doing this. You and I aren't."

"Good idea. Leager would probably enjoy a chance to get off Psiax for a bit. I'm putting these in my locked cabinet."

Kirsten nodded.

"Kirsty…" Spider began. "I know it's none of my business, but have you told Yasha and Sesshomaru yet?"

She shook her head. "I'm so afraid it will screw up the time line in some way. I mean, we're taking awful chances as it is."

"Kagome's been going back and forth for some time and not being very discreet about the information she gives out."

"Yeah well – Inuyasha thought she was crazy to begin with, y'know."

"Have you ever wondered if maybe… just maybe Inuyasha, Sesshomaru and Shippo survived to today? That they're out there somewhere, watching these preparations?"

"The thought's crossed my mind. It's within the realm of possibility." Kirsten raised an eyebrow at Spider's grin. "And they are deliberately not coming forward so the time line doesn't get screwed up! That is… if they survived to modern times."

"Maybe we can make some kind of arrangement for a message to be left, so they can tell us what happens? That wouldn't really mess with anything, would it?"

Kirsten shook her head. "Dunno, Spider."

Suddenly, she began to cry. Spider set down the case and put his arms around her.

"Oh, Kirsty! I didn't mean to make you cry!"

"It's just… well, I've become rather attached to Inuyasha. And so has Jon. It's gonna be so hard on us to let him go. I wish we could go back with them, but we can't. We're needed here."

"Kirsty…" Spider hugged her hard. "We all like him, y'know. With any luck, I'm right and he'll still be out there somewhere, finally able to come forward."

Kirsten gave another sob. "But what if everything we've done isn't enough? What if Naraku still wins?"

"Then maybe he's still out there, which means you and Jon will have the opportunity to kick his ass for him."

Neither physician saw the tall shadow that left the vicinity as silently as it had come. Sesshomaru wondered what kind of information was being withheld from him, and why it was so upsetting to Kirsten. He smiled grimly to himself. One way or another, he would find out. Nothing should be overlooked that might mean the difference between victory and defeat.

He had not until now considered the possibility that he had survived to this modern age. It was quite possible that he had, although he would have to have some means of disguising himself and protecting his identity. He would have to move around somewhat to prevent people from finding out what he was, but it could easily be accomplished if one were clever.

Another thing to ponder…