~Chapter 2~

Cori woke up with a splitting headache in what she quickly figured out was a jail cell.

"Gah!" She grunted, pushing herself to a sitting position against the wall and holding her head. "Fucking A!"

"Welcome back to the land of the living." A female voice came from the corner.

"I think I would have preferred staying where I was." Cori chuckled ruefully. The voice chuckled too.

A face materialized in the gloom. There was a woman about 25 years old with long black hair and bright, intelligent eyes.

"You're not like the others." Cori murmured.

"If I were I wouldn't be here and if you were you wouldn't be here either." The woman smirked sardonically. "Empty headed ninnies all of them. They're engineered that way. Every once in awhile a fluke comes up and they produce a child with abnormally vibrant hair or a female with unusual intelligence and spirit. I'm one of those and you appear to be as well."

"Engineered?" Cori asked blankly.

"Genetically. They tamper with the embryo before transferring it from test tube to mother."

Cori shuddered. "That's fucked up. Give me the old fashioned way any day. It's much more fun." She chuckled and the woman flashed a smile. "I'm Cori. What's your name?"

"Cassandra. It's a burden." She grumbled.

"Mind if I just call you Cass?" Cori asked.

"Fine by me."

"Ok Cass. What are you in for?" Cori grinned.

"Swearing in church." Cori blinked and then let out a howl of laughter until she realized her head still hurt.

"Damn. I knew people were crazy, but damn!" Cori laughed to prevent herself from thinking to much about the situation.

Cass chuckled. "What are you here for?"

"Well my boss was pissing me off, so I told him off and kicked him in the back of the knees and the next thing I know, I'm here." She shrugged.

Cass stared at her. "You really aren't from around her are you?"

Cori chuckled. "Honey, you have no idea."

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Koenma called in his detective team. When they had assembled, he gave them their assignment.

"A portal to another dimension has appeared somewhere in the city. A woman by the name of Coriander fell through it and is now trapped in a parallel dimension." He began.

"So can't she just hop back through the portal?" Yusuke interrupted.

"Unfortunately it's not that easy. The dimension she's stuck in is so polluted, that occasionally, a portal opens to circulate air from cleaner dimensions. Sort of like a vacuum cleaner. The problem is the portal is only one way as much as we know of it right now. I need you four to find the portal. Hiei and Kurama, I need you to go through it and try to keep her from doing too much damage to herself or anyone else. Yusuke and Kuwabara will be your links to this dimension. You will all be equipped with these communication compacts." Koenma said distributing one to each of them.

"So I'm expected to jump through a one-way portal to help someone I have no connection to." Hiei grumbled. "I really hate you Koenma."

"I know. Oh and Hiei. Try not to fight with her too much." Koenma said as a dismissal.

"So in a city of several million, we have to find a portal to another city of several million where you two have to find one person that he didn't even show us a picture of. Is it just me or does Koenma get vaguer as time goes on?" Yusuke ranted.

Kurama chuckled, Hiei smirked, and Kuwabara was playing with his communication compact until Yusuke's butt started ringing. Hiei sighed in mild irritation at the buffoon. "I guess we'd better get searching."

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Late that night, the door to Cass and Cori's cell opened and a guard walked in. "Coriander. You have been cleared of all charges against you. Your mate explained your condition." He said condescendingly.

"I just bet he did." Cori muttered and Cass snickered. "Yo Cass. Here's my address. Stop by when you get out." Cori gave her friend a jaunty wink and followed the guard.

Jonathon was waiting to take her home.

"This isn't like you Coriander." He said as they walked to the car. "Please stop this silly behavior. I don't want to have to come here to pick up my mate again."

Cori stopped. "Ok. I'm going to thank you for your help even though I didn't need it, I appreciate it. Now I'm going to go off. I am NOT your mate and my name's not fucking Coriander! It's Cori! And I am walking home." She struck off in what she hoped was the direction of her flat.

Jonathon stared after her. "But we were paired." He started.

Cori spun. "I don't give a flying fuck what some piece of shit paper has to say." Jonathon heard glass crack somewhere. "I think you're an arrogant, chauvinistic asshole and there's no way in all the circles of hell that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with a mentally and morally inferior jack ass like you." Cori surprised herself. She wasn't naturally an angry person, but everything about this place had a tendency to rub her drastically the wrong way.

"But."

"I don't love you and I will never be with you." Cori said quietly and started walking away.

"What's love?"

The question asked so simply had a profound effect on Cori. ~What kind of world doesn't even know love?~ "You know it when it comes. Let yourself open up to caring about those around you and it comes quite easily. It will manifest itself in many forms but it is all love." She said sadly and faded into the night.