Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I just borrow Sesshou on the weekends.
To Bear Witness
Chapter Thirty-One: To Get You Back Part One: Into the Belly of the Beast
"Did she just jump from the fucking plane?!" Sonia hollered in disbelief. Sutaasafaia and Miroku watched as Kagome fell to Earth, Miroku slowly beginning to panic as Sutaasafaia glared at Sonia.
"I want your word," Sutaasafaia growled dangerously. "That nothing you see here will appear on the internet."
"What?"
"I mean it! You're word!"
"Fine," Sonia relented. "I won't, but who would want to see someone get flattened into goo?"
"Here," Shippou said quickly, tossing Sutaasafaia a set of walkie talkies. "Just strap them around your throat, like those guys did in 'Tears of the Sun'."
"Thanks Shippou. Land the bird when we leave." She grabbed Miroku, making sure his parachute was strapped on before jumping after Kagome. Sutaasafaia let go of Miroku soon afterward, the both of them watching Kagome as she began to glow a vivid pink.
"What's she doing?" Miroku asked. Sutaasafaia shrugged. "I don't know. Some miko thing."
Kagome drew a circle in the air and chanted a few words. The circle glowed and solidified, creating a makeshift surfing board.
"OK then," Miroku said after a moment. "That's new."
"You're telling me," Sutaasafaia replied as they opened their parachutes. They slowly descended to the dry plain below them, Sutaasafaia and Miroku shrugging off the extra weight as Kagome hovered to a stop.
"What's the big idea?" Miroku shouted in Kagome's ear as Shippou landed the helicopter a little away from them. "You could have been killed."
Kagome stared ahead of her, seemingly in her own world before walking toward the helicopter. "Kagome," Sutaasafaia called as she and Miroku ran to catch up. "Kagome wait."
Kagome stopped, looked at the others and sighed. "I know what I did was stupid," she began uneasily. "But I feel like the more time we waste, the less time we have to save them."
"I know, but we're here too. We want to help," Miroku reminded her. "So you have to let us help you. Here," he passed her one of the walkie talkies. "Put this on, and we'll go in behind you."
"Let's do a weapons check first," Sutaasafaia suggested, Miroku and Kagome nodding in agreement. Miroku reached inside the helicopter, pulling out three bullet-proof vests as Sutaasafaia grabbed their weapons.
"Here's Kagome's shotgun," she said, passing the gun to Kagome along with a box of bullets and a bullet holder. "Miroku's rifle, and my .38. Everybody ready?"
Kagome strapped her vest on, then nodded.
"Alright then. Shippou," Sutaasafaia called into the helicopter. "You and Sonia stay here. Be ready to go at a moment's notice."
"You guys stay in touch," Sonia said. "And good luck."
Sutaasafaia led the way to the oil rig, with Kagome and Miroku right behind her as they came to a stop at a pair of steel doors. "Alright then," Kagome said as she loaded her shotgun. "All pleasantries are over and done with. Are we ready to rock and roll?"
"Ready," Sutaasafaia replied softly, her eyes glowing as they paled to a crystal blue.
"Check," Miroku responded, rifle in hand as Kagome nodded back. The three readied themselves, then counted to three before kicking the door in.
Katrina sat straight up, Inuyasha's soup splashing on his face as her ears twitched eagerly.
"What is it?" Inuyasha asked, watching as her eyes seemed to glance at everything and nothing at once.
"Shhhh…." Katrina stuck her head out the door, then she disappeared down the hallway. She came back a few seconds later with a ring of keys in her hand.
"What's up?" Inuyasha asked as she unlocked the first cuff. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," Katrina admitted. "But I want you ready to go. Rin is down the hallway." She helped Inuyasha stand on his feet, waiting for him to steady himself before backing away from him and walking to the door.
"Wait a minute!" Inuyasha called. "What about you?"
"I'll be fine," Katrina said with a smile. "You just go get your niece and get ready."
"What was that?" Shu wondered out loud, his attention moving from the remote control assembly to Naraku.
"What was what?" Naraku asked, straining to hear something. Shu sighed in long suffering, then shrugged. "It sounds like something interesting."
Naraku paused a moment, then grinned. "I know what that is," he walked past Shu to the remote control, shoving the youkai working on it aside. "We have guests."
"Don't you think that was kinda loud you two?" Miroku asked as he and the others entered the oil rig. Sutaasafaia shook her head absently. "Nope. If they heard it, they'd be here by now."
Kagome nodded in agreement, her eyes fixed on the pager's tracking screen. "OK you two, turn to the right," she instructed, gesturing to a nearby hallway. Sutaasafaia went in first, followed by Miroku with Kagome bringing up the rear. Sutaasafaia peered around the corner and, finding no on stationed at the lookout, proceeded to the left at Kagome's instruction.
"How big do you think this place is?" Miroku asked after a few minutes of twists and turns. "It feels like I've seen all this before."
"Are you sure you're reading that thing right Kagome?" Sutaasafaia joked. "Because I agree with Miroku."
"I'm reading it correctly," Kagome countered seriously. "But the signal keeps waving, like the tracer is moving or someth-"
"Stop right there!"
They froze immediately, each looking like deer caught in headlights as they heard the sound of safetys clicking off from behind them.
"Oh crap…" Miroku groaned. "I told you guys that we were too loud."
"Turn around and drop you're weapons."
They did so slowly, turning around first before lowering their weapons to the floor in front of them. The two human guards kept their guns raised and pointed at them, each nodding in approval before barking the next order.
"Now, put your hands where I can see them!"
Kagome raised her hands first, her eyes fixed on the tracing screen as Sutaasafaia and Miroku did the same. One guard grinned eagerly at them, triumph shining in his eyes. "Who are you?"
"Girl scouts," Miroku replied. "Want to buy some shortbread cookies?"
"Um," Kagome whispered to Sutaasafaia. "Look at the tracer. It looks like something's coming this way."
The guard scowled and shot the floor in front of Miroku's feet, frowning when he didn't flinch. "So, you're a tough guy huh?" he said. "That won't help your female comrades here." He turned to Sutaasafaia, gun pointed to her feet as he repeated his question.
"Tell me who you are-" he gasped as clawed hands suddenly wrapped around the side of his head. Katrina appeared above their heads moments later, taking a moment to smash their heads together before releasing them. The guards fell heavily to the floor, unconscious.
"Sorry about being so late," she said as she dusted her hands off, her wings twitching behind her. Miroku stared open-mouthed as she landed in front of them, her wings disappearing as she handed them their weapons. "Hi Miroku," she said with a smile. "Don't look so shocked. Most sealing spells don't work here."
"That explains why mine is still in effect," Sutaasafaia muttered to herself as she rechecked her gun. "What say you Bird Brain?"
"Sutaasafaia!" Katrina exclaimed happily, taking a moment to give the inu youkai a brief hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Looks like getting you out of trouble again," she replied. "You know Kagome and Miroku, and you know why we're here, right?"
Katrina nodded. "Inuyasha's already free and he's going to get Rin. Kagome, Sesshoumaru's down that way," she pointed to the other end of the hallway. "Don't worry. The guards are…'preoccupied' for the moment."
"Thanks," Kagome said, then ran down the hallway. Miroku and Sutaasafaia moved to follow her, but Katrina stopped them.
"Before you guys turn this place into Hell, can you get my father out of here?"
Sutaasafaia nodded. "Yeah, just lead the way."
Inuyasha opened the door at the end of the hallway and entered the room, surprised to find the room completely empty. 'No,' he said to himself as he looked around. 'There's someone here after all.' He glanced at the back of the room and the lightening shield.
Rin lay sleeping inside, curled into a tight ball as she muttered something incoherent. Inuyasha approached the shield, his instincts telling him not to touch it as he called to his niece.
"Rin! Wake up!"
Rin rolled over, but kept sleeping, mumbling something along the lines of "But Ah, today's Saturday. Rin doesn't want to go to school."
"For the love of God," Inuyasha growled in annoyance. "Rin! Wake up or I'm taking your car!"
"I'm up!" Rin jerked to a sitting position, glancing around her quickly as she stood up. "Just give me a moment to get rea…d..y…not funny Uncle Yasha." Her eyes widened as she turned to him, tears of joy streaming down her face. "Uncle Yasha?"
"Yeah well, it ain't the Boogey Man," Inuyasha grumbled, then smiled back. "Ready to go?"
"Yes!" The shield crashed around her, turning into dust at their feet as Rin threw her arms around Inuyasha's neck. "I was so scared!"
"I know Rin. I was worried about you," Inuyasha told her as they headed for the door.
"No, you don't understand," Rin complained. "I was scared! There was this one youkai that wanted to hook up with me, then another youkai that tried to rape me."
"What happened to that youkai?" Inuyasha snarled, his eyes slightly becoming red.
"I killed him."
Inuyasha turned toward the center of the room, shoving Rin behind him as Shu descended from the rafters above. He shook his head disapprovingly at Inuyasha. "Tisk tisk. I thought you had better manners than that."
"You stay away from her," Inuyasha growled, his claws extended as he wrapped one arm around Rin's waist. "I won't let you hurt her again."
"Again?" Shu looked confused for a second, them burst into merry laughter. "I didn't do a thing to her. Katrina saw to that, her and that damned shield. But now that it's gone, I'll be more than happy to take her off your hands."
"No."
Shu sighed, then shrugged. "Fine. Then she dies here with you. Maten," Inuyasha growled as the youkai stepped into view, cracking his knuckles dramatically as Shu walked past Inuyasha to the door.
"Finish them will you?"
"With pleasure…" Maten replied, a murderous smile spreading across his face. Shu left the room, leaving Inuyasha and Rin with the lightening youkai.
"Well," Maten said, breaking the silence as he began to circle Inuyasha and Rin. "Who shall die first?"
Katrina stopped mid step, her ears twitching once again as Miroku and Sutaasafaia pressed ahead.
"Wait a minute," Miroku said when he noticed Katrina's absence. "Katrina's not here."
"She's not?" Sutaasafaia stopped beside him, then turned as Katrina opened a door to the roof. "Where are you going?"
"Keep going that way," Katrina instructed. "He's in the last storeroom. Look for one with green tubes."
"Where are you going?" Sutaasafaia asked again, this time to empty air as Katrina disappeared. "Oh well," she said as she and Miroku continued on. "I guess we'll catch up to her later."
Miroku and Sutaasafaia searched the storerooms one by one, until they came to the last one at the end of the hallway.
"Ok Miroku, this is it." Sutaasafaia whispered as she pushed the door open. It creaked, but otherwise didn't make a sound as Sutaasafaia and Miroku entered the room.
There in the back of the room, just as Katrina told them, were a set of green cylinder tubes. An ancient falcon youkai in his humanoid form hung suspended inside the working one, tubes and wires of all kind snaking from his decrepit form to the top of the cylinder lid. The green liquid surrounding him flowed steadily around him as he struggled to breathe. The oxygen mask on his face wasn't helping matters either.
"What do we do now?" Miroku asked as Sutaasafaia turned to the interface of one of the nearby computer consoles. She typed steadily, her face set and determined as she scanned the monitor screen. Sutaasafaia raised her head suddenly, still clicking away as she shoved a few strands of hair back in frustration.
The lid of the cylinder abruptly slid away, merging with the wall behind it as the liquid inside drained away through a hole in the bottom of the tube.
"You just seem to have everything under control, don't you?" Miroku teased as Sutaasafaia clicked a few more keys before abandoning the keyboard entirely. She gave Miroku a parting glance as the cylinder raised into the ceiling, the wires and tubes inserted into the youkai coming away.
The youkai slumped over as Sutaasafaia and Miroku held him, trying to help him stand as Sutaasafaia scanned the room for something to wrap him in. Together they sat the youkai on a nearby table, Miroku draping on of the white sheets around his emaciated frame.
"Are you alright?" Sutaasafaia asked as Miroku checked the youkai for injury. The youkai nodded, shivering slightly as he stared into Miroku's eyes.
"Do you know my daughter?" he whispered, his voice scratchy and hoarse. Miroku nodded. "Katrina, right?"
The youkai nodded. "Is she safe?"
"She went to fight her brother," Sutaasafaia told him, guilt panging through her at the panicked look in the elderly youkai's eyes. "She said to save you."
"You must save her!" he told them. "Shu will kill her! She's not strong enough!"
"It has been a while since you last saw Athena fight." Sutaasafaia patted his spotted hand gently. "Don't worry Ra, she'll be fine."
"Why did you call Katrina Athena?" Miroku asked. Sutaasafaia smiled. "That's a story for another time. For right now, lets get him out of here."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," called a voice from the door. Sutaasafaia and Miroku paused as a young woman entered the room. Her hair hung about her shoulders in a stark white cape, her blank eyes staring at them as she pulled a machete out of its sheath on her side.
"Naraku-sama demands that he stay here."
"And we don't give a damn," Sutaasafaia growled. "Just who are you anyway?"
"I'm Kanna, and if you leave him now I'll make your deaths as painless as possible." She smiled, a hollow ghostly thing as she glanced at them from behind her blade. "I promise."
"Miroku, get him out of here," Sutaasafaia whispered as she passed Ra to him. Miroku shook his head, but walked when Sutaasafaia shoved him toward the door. "Now! Don't worry about me! I'll be fine!"
Miroku glanced at her one last time before doing as she bid, closing the door behind him. Kanna glanced at the door, then at the CIA agent before it.
"You will regret that decision human."
Sutaasafaia sneered, her fangs glinting in the lacking overhead lights. "Who said I was human?"
Shu ran across the rooftop toward the plane, his nose twitching in anticipation. He knew he would be interrupted, and couldn't wait for her to show-
"Shu!"
He smiled as he turned around, watching as the door to the rooftop exploded from its hinges in a burst of wind. He stepped away from the helicopter as Katrina stepped onto the roof.
"Ah, there you are little sister. What took you so long?" Shu glared at her aura in slight surprise. "So you choose to fight me, do you?" he demanded.
Katrina said nothing but stood motionless, the wind rustling around her. Shu laughed, a dark glee that made Katrina's hair stand on end.
"Why are you so silent Anut? Are you afraid? Our dear sister Artemis wasn't as silent as you."
Lightening flashed across the sky as Katrina's eyes narrowed, but she refused to be baited.
"She screamed a good deal when she died," Shu continued, enjoying the darkening of Katrina's aura. "I made sure to make her suffering pleasurable. And here blood," he grinned, his claws flexing around the sheath of his sword. "Was especially sweet."
Katrina growled, the gray of her eyes instantly turning an electric-charged silver. She reached to her sides, pushing the ruby buttons on the sticks. Lightening leaked from her eyes as the whips propelled from their confinements. She snapped them once, barely aware of the currents of electricity that circulated around them as she focused on him again.
"Did you enjoy your little speech Shu?" she snarled, snapping the whips once again. "I hope so, because that's the last one you'll ever have."
Kagome ran for what seemed like forever, stopping at each door before coming to one on her near right. A light shone from inside the room, and there were voices coming from that side as well. Kagome peered inside, standing on her toes as she watched two neko youkai in lab coats operate a machine.
"Naraku said he wanted this done today," one said as the other nodded in understanding. "He said that there was a chance that there could be trouble."
"What trouble?" the other replied as he began to push a few buttons in front of him. "No one would dare attack this place. They don't know where we are."
"All the same, it would be best if we got this over with."
Another machine whirled in front of them, it raising a gurney to Kagome's line of sight. Sesshoumaru was strapped to it, an gas mask to his face as he slept unaware. The neko youkai continued to operate the machine, them watching with Kagome as a green glass tube slowly came down from the ceiling.
'They're going to put him in that!' Kagome realized as the neko continued to work. 'I've got to stop them!' She crept inside quietly, raising an invisibility spell around her as she crept behind the neko youkai. She reappeared when she stood behind them, watching the neko as Sesshoumaru opened his eyes.
'My eyes are mistaken,' Sesshoumaru told himself as Kagome sank purified daggers into the backs of the youkai. 'No, they must not be. No other human has so much power.' He watched as she mulled over the machine, biting her lip thoughtfully before she lightly smacked her forehead.
"Duh Kagome!" she muttered. "Could it be the one that says 'Down'?" Sesshoumaru felt himself being lowered to a vertical position moments later, him turning to look at her as she approached him.
"How are you?" she whispered softly, gently removing the mask so Sesshoumaru could breathe.
"Better, now that you're here."
Kagome smiled back, then shook her head. "You know, I think you have trouble stamped to your forehead."
Sesshoumaru looked on as Kagome unlocked the clamps around his wrists and ankles, swiftly moving to a sitting position as he quirked a brow. "One could say the same for you, miko."
"Yeah yeah." Kagome glanced around the room, finding what looked like a locker on the other side. "Wait here." She walked over to it, studying it before shrugging and blowing the door from its hinges. "There," she said as she rummaged inside. She came out with a white lab coat and pants, tossing them to Sesshoumaru before digging further inside the locker.
"There's no shoes," she said with a sigh minutes later. "So you might be stuck."
"Look in the trash can," Sesshoumaru said as he pulled up his pants. "That's where Katrina put them."
"Katrina?"
Sesshoumaru shook his head, pulling the lab coat over his shoulders as Kagome brought him the shoes. "That's something you'll have to ask her." He stopped, brushing a stray lock away from Kagome's face as he smiled down at her. "I thought you were angry with me."
"I was."
"And I thought I would never see you again."
Kagome smiled back, wrapping her arms around his ribs in a gentle hug. "Same here."
Sesshoumaru hugged her back, kissing the top of her head as something caught his eye. "And what's this?" He pulled on the scarf, watching the bow come undone as Kagome blushed and pulled away from him.
"Um…"
"May I use it?"
Kagome nodded. "Sure. It's yours anyway."
"Thank you." Sesshoumaru wrapped it around his waist, then turned to look at Kagome. "How do I look?"
"You know, if you had a few sakura blossoms on your shoulder," Kagome started with a grin. "You'd look like your old self."
"Thank you, I think." He and Kagome walked toward the door, Kagome turning one last time as Sesshoumaru stepped through the threshold. "What is it?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"
"I just get this sense of déjà vu," Kagome admitted. "Don't you?"
"Now that I think about-" The door slammed shut between them, leaving Sesshoumaru standing in the hallway alone. "Kagome?" He grabbed the doorknob, jerking back as Kagome pounded on the other side. She looked back and gasped, Sesshoumaru watching as papers began to swirl around the room.
"Sesshoumaru, run!" she yelled through the glass window. "I've got this! You get out of here!"
"Yes," Naraku's voice called over the P. A. system. "Leave the miko behind. I have provided entertainment for her."
"Naraku," Sesshoumaru growled dangerously. "Let her out of there."
"Only if you come to me," Naraku bargained. The door across the hall swung open, a light shining from inside as Naraku's voice filtered through the hallway. "I suggest you hurry. Kagura isn't known for her patience."
Sesshoumaru glanced back into the lab, unable to see for what seemed like a dust storm inside the room.
"Fine," Sesshoumaru said as he stepped toward the door. "Since you wish for death, I will personally bring it to you."
Kagome stepped further into the room, her arms shielded over her face as dust and papers assaulted her mercilessly. She traveled farther into the room, tripping over a stray cord before coming to the 'eye of the storm'. In the middle stood a dark haired woman with a fan, her narrowed eyes a bloody red
'It's the woman from the party,' Kagome realized as she stepped forward. "What's going on? Who are you?" she demanded. The woman merely opened her fan, laughing as another gust of wind blew past Kagome.
"I'm Kagura, the Wind Witch," she announced grandly. She raised the fan to her face, peering at Kagome from behind the expensive Japanese silk.
"And what do you want from me?"
"Why, that's simple." Kagura waved the fan forward, watching as ki blades slashed through the wind tunnel toward Kagome.
"I want you to die."