A First Mission
By Izzy
Part 2:In the Court of the Crown Prince Sesshoumaru

"He's bristling more then usual."

Both Inu Yasha and Kagome felt dread at these words from one of the Crown Prince's female guests. Whenever anyone took any notice of them, there could be only one result.

"Sit him, Terran. His standing is annoying."

Kagome waited for the knife from one of the guards, though she didn't hope it wouldn't flash out, before she squeaked, "Sit!" She heard the crash, but forced herself not to look.

This was her fifth day in the Crown Prince's court. Interestingly enough, the Crown Prince himself had only made her sit him once more, before leaving them to the amusement of everyone else.

"She doesn't like doing that, does she?" inquired a second female guest.

"You'll have to excuse her for that," laughed the tall guard. "The poor little Terren's in love with him."

"What?" Kagome demanded, outraged. Granted, she liked Inu Yasha more then she liked any other person she had run into on this planet, but that wasn't saying much, and the very idea she could be in love with him was absurd.

"Oh, come now! We find you every morning with your head turned in his direction. Surely that isn't a coincidence?"

Kagome turned red, for she could not deny this. Typically both of them tended to fall asleep long before the court retired, which according to Inu Yasha, was sometimes as late as a couple of hours before the following dawn. And while the guard used to word "morning," it wasn't always morning anymore when even the guards rose, so often they woke up in the deserted court and talked. Their conversation wasn't always civil, but Kagome knew that if she stayed here for a very long time, they might just be the only thing to preserve her sanity. And the conversation usually ended with one of them falling asleep, and the other watching until they too were asleep, which was also a comfort that Kagome thought might be vital to her sanity if her visit was a long one.

"Well, if she's really the same race as his mother, one would think-" But she was suddenly interrupted as the door swung open and a guard announced the Crown Prince's entrance. The two females hastily rose to their feet.

Then Kagome heard a voice that she did not like the sound of at all say, "Consorts, Crown Prince? I would advise you to send them away."

"They are not mere consorts, but Ladies who deserve some respect." The Crown Prince entered, and Kagome's fears were confirmed when she saw him accompanied by a Vorta, as well as a pair of Jem'Hadar. "And we will not be talking about anything they cannot hear today, Ambassador. Let me introduce you. Ladies, this is the Ambassador Temlin from the Dominion. These are-"

"Who is that?" Temlin interrupted him when he caught sight of Kagome, who sat very still, trying not to look frightened. "She looks Terren, and she wears a Starfleet uniform."

"She is one of their cadets. Her ship crash-landed on our planet, and we are currently trying to decide what to do with her."

"Interesting." Temlin walked up to Kagome, who remained still, mostly because she hadn't the faintest idea of what she could do under the circumstances. He leaned over and around her as if he was inspecting a warp core. "This Terren...how long have you had her?"

"We found her eight days ago. She can do a little trick with the half-Terren next to her, would you like to see?"

"Certainly." This time, Kagome did not hold out, but said simply, "Sit."

Once again, she did not look as Inu Yasha crashed, but Temlin looked quite offended. "A prisoner giving me commands? Get them to do their trick, and be quick about it."

"They did their trick. That was the trick."

"It was?" Kagome hadn't thought it possible for even Vulcans to raise their eyebrows to that height. "How pathetic." He turned away. The females giggled. The Crown Prince did not look pleased.

"Is there anything else you might want out of them? I don't know how much the girl can tell you, but you may feel free to interrogate her."

"I don't know much," Kagome said hastily. Then she added, "and what I do know, I won't tell." But the words seemed awfully hollow, since she did not really have that much faith in keeping herself silent, should it come to torture.

"Bold words, human." Temlin looked very smug; he had guessed she could not be much. "Let's see them put to the test. We won't do much to her, at least not today."

Then the Jem'Hadar grabbed Kagome by both of her wrists and hoisted her to her feet. Her bindings locked together and she struggled half-heartedly, but she knew it was no use.

She glanced around wildly. The Crown Prince had a look of detached satisfaction. The females were still giggling. The guards were paying no attention.

She would have screamed then, except that her eyes happened to fall on Inu Yasha. She had expected him to be as detached as the guards, since there was no real reason he should care about what happened to her. But instead he had an upset look on his face, more upset then she had seen him yet. He had always been either stoic or biting through everything, though once or twice during their nighttime conversations she thought she had come close to something beyound his hard exterior. Now at last, when she could not savor it, she had gotten there, and it comforted her for a moment before her knees hit the floor and the Jem'Hadar dragged her painfully from the room.

Hours Later

Inu Yasha was the only person left in the court when the Jem'Hadar returned her to it. They dumped her unceremoniously on the block next to him, then left.

"What did they do to you?" he asked her. His voice was back to its usual indifference, but Kagome was now certain much of that indifference was feigned. Which could have made her cross, but she was too beaten to care. "Hit me a couple of times, used some things that caused shocks-maybe you might know what they are? They were triangle-shaped and beeped like the thing they used on my vocal chords. I didn't tell them anything. The Vorta-Temlin-said there was no hurry. Do you think the Crown Prince will give me to him?"

"I'm certain he will. He has no use for you. And I think all the Dominion Ambassadors are getting impatient with the King's behavior-"

"The Dominion Ambassadors?" This made Kagome perk up. "How many have there been?"

"I've lost count. Many within the last month. I don't know why they're so interested in Youkai."

"It must be the close proximity to the Chin'toka system." Kagome mused. "If either the Federation of the Dominion got the aid of this planet, it could determine whether the current offensive will be a success or not. Even with all the strict rules concerning First Contact and when it goes wrong, I'm amazed the Federation hasn't sent any ambassadors here."

"They should. Idiots. Well, the Federation should be lucky this time. If the Vorta shows up again in the Crown Prince's company, it's a safe bet there won't be an alliance formed by him."

"You're right," said Kagome softly. "We are idiots. I guess there's no hope for me. I know the Cardassians put their prisoners on trial and lets everyone see but them, and then always find them guilty and execute them."

"Surely they won't kill you if they think you're useful?"

"I won't be for much longer." A treacherous sob came dangerously close to the surface as she spoke. "I stayed silent today, but today was nothing. Another day, two at most, and I'll break. I'm sure of it."

She turned her head away from him, not wanting him to see her expression. She thought she heard what sounded suspiciously like the cackle of a pressed-against force-field and turned it back. He wasn't pressed against the force-field, but he was suspiciously close to it. His face was inscrutable. It occurred to Kagome that she had not have any non-negative physical contact since she had knelt over Lieutenant Runes on the Gilgamesh. Suddenly filled with longing from her ordeal, she reached out, but she knew it was useless. She felt a brief flash of anger at seeing Inu Yasha back away, but then reminded herself that probably most of the physical contact he had ever had was abusive. "How could you survive?" she murmured without thinking.

He looked at her for a long time, but seemed unable to think of anything to say. Then finally he said, "You should sleep," and he lay down.

The Following "Morning"

"Aw, how sweet."

Kagome heard these words as they pulled her awake. To her relief, it was one of the guards, rather then Temlin.

She opened her eyes, and realized what the guard was talking about. She'd ended up with her face turned in the direction of Inu Yasha again, and very close to the force-field. He wasn't too far from it either, and also facing her.

"Not really," she mumbled. "Just two prisoners getting what comfort they can."

The guard chuckled and turned away. This was the morning routine: he made sure they were awake, but did not try to force them to get up unless they did not do so when the first guests started coming in.

And that day Kagome definitely had no intention of moving before the first guest arrived. She had a sinking suspicion on who it would be.

It was usually at least half an hour, but Kagome did not think it had been ten minutes before she heard the guard yell, "Everyone! He enters: the Crown Prince Sesshoumaru of Youkai!"

"All hail the Crown Prince!" yelled two more guards.

And then she heard, "Spectacular. Are you greeted like this every morning?"

"I am greeted in this fashion when I enter my court. That is typically not this early, however. Are you sure you would not like some refreshment?"

But Temlin's attention had already fallen on Kagome. "Good morning, Cadet. Did you sleep well?"

Kagome responded by pressing her lips into as long and thin a line as she could manage, until they hurt from the strain.

"I think you'll have to work on her a little today," said the Crown Prince lazily.

"Oh, not today I think." It took a considerable effort for Kagome to hide her relief. "Tomorrow. I think I will still have the time then..."

"If you want her on a more permanent basis, you may talk to the King tonight about it."

"I think I will. Really, I find the delays he is making rather distressing."

"The King is very busy."

Kagome and Inu Yasha caught each other's eyes for a spilt second. Despite the situation, neither could help but be slightly amused.

"Not busy enough, I hope, that he leaves Ambassadors waiting like this all the time!"

As the two began to argue, Inu Yasha snickered slightly, causing Kagome to flash the room a nervous glance. None of the Youkai reacted, but when he snickered again, Temlin's attention was brought back to them. "What would happen, I wonder, if we put them in the force-field together?"

"It is about time I gave the hanyou some food," agreed the Crown Prince. Kagome had been fed a little at midday, but Inu Yasha has limited to what was beamed into the force-field every other day.

Three of the guards surrounded Inu Yasha. One of them deactivated the force-field. There was no ability for him to do anything and he did not try. They had a quick and heated argument on which of the two were to give up their rations to the prisoners before the Crown Prince, probably out of impatience, offered better rations to the two who did, the result of which all three dumped theirs rations, then retreated and reactivated the force-field.

Kagome picked up one of the rations and began to eat. Inu Yasha did the same. Then they looked at the third, looked at each other, and Kagome mouthed, "Split it later." He nodded slightly.

"No physical comfort." Temlin sounded disappointed. "I thought after yesterday the Terren would be desperate for such contact."

The knowledge of how Inu Yasha had to be reacting internally at such remarks, combined with the general feeling of not having that much to lose, loosened Kagome's tongue, and she said softly, "Curious?"

He only raised his eyebrows. Like a Vulcan. But at least they admit their shortcomings when asked. She pressed on. "You know, I'm curious about something too. It's well-known, you know, on the campus of Starfleet Academy, that the Jem'Hadar don't eat, sleep, or have sex." Nor do plenty of Starfleet cadets at certain times in the semester, but I won't mention that. "But there's a lot of speculation about the Vorta. The Founders bred you, right?" Still no response. She took that for a yes. "Almost all speculative parties believe you eat, and the majority believe you sleep, but why are you really so curious? Do you need to watch other species touch each other to fulfill the occasional random urge?"

She probably should be fearful at the tiny trace of rage that crossed his face, but at that moment, she could only feel triumphant. "I am not curious about your matings rituals!" He hissed. "I merely was wondering at the abnormality in your behavior."

"If you say so," she laughed back.

"If you wish, Ambassador, you may punish the Terren," the Crown Prince was kind enough to remind Temlin.

"Tomorrow." the Vorta replied, turning away in a huff.

"That wasn't a good idea," Inu Yasha hissed as her when they were out of hearing.

"I'll be dead now in a matter of days no matter what I do," she hissed back. The guards looked at them oddly, and they decided to be silent for the rest of the day.

Nighttime

Kagome had a harder time then usual getting to sleep. Despite her last words to Inu Yasha, she was very worried about the consequences of her words. She had reached the point where she was willing to believe that any little thing could make the difference between a swift death, and a painful one. But what really occupied her mind was a simple amazement, on how quickly all hope had faded away from her. She had never even hoped for a rescue; she was quite certain Starfleet had presumed her dead.

Still, eventually she did fall asleep, only to wake up hours later from a nightmare and throw herself against the force-field before collapsing back on the floor. The noise woke Inu Yasha up. "Are you going to be doing that all night?" he demanded, jumping up.

At that Kagome lost her temper. "Sit!" she barked, and he fell back down. "And leave me alone."

"Fine." There was silence.

Kagome was just starting to think it was actually a pity that what could very well be their last chance of her comforting him had just been wasted when the tall guard came in, glancing about furtively.

"Is it morning already? Is the Ambassador early?" she asked in confusion.

The guard shook his head. "No. The Ambassador is in talks with the King and Crown Prince even as we speak. Their subject is solely the two of you."

"Both of us?" Inu Yasha demanded. "I thought they were interested in only her."

Kagome's temper strayed dangerously close back towards the edge. "Keep that up and I'll do you-know-what!"

"I would advise you not to," the guard told her sternly. "At least not before you are both out of the palace."

At their confusion, he continued. "The fate of a future alliance will not be decided today, but your fate will, and the decision can not be left in the hands of the Crown Prince, because he has made up his mind about both of you. He wants to be rid of you both, and will gladly hand you over and greatly increase the probability of an eventual alliance that I fear the long-term consequences of for Youkai will be terrible."

Kagome understood. "So you're going to free us."

He nodded. "I have started a rumor amoung the guards that the Crown Prince has developed a very strong but secret dislike for the Ambassador, and does not want him to have anything that would be as useful to him as you would be. The Vorta have a talent for hearing such things. The Ambassador will begin to believe that you both were set free by his order."

"There's no way the guards would believe he hates some Ambassador more then he hates me." Inu Yasha pointed out.

"But the Ambassador will believe it." The guard explained. "Eventually we will probably all be interrogated on whether he ordered us to set you free. All of us, myself included, will deny it, but afterwards we will all agree it was likely someone was ordered, and was denying it because of his duty to the Crown Prince, and of course the Ambassador will hear that too, and it will make him angrier. And the more the Crown Prince denies it as well, the angrier still the Ambassador will get, unless the Crown Prince himself begins to believe he did, by a trick of his memory, for it is true that he is not too fond the Ambassador." As he spoke, he deactivated the force-field. "Go, and hurry!"

Neither of them needed a second prompting. But when they had left the court, they both paused, unsure which way would get them out of the palace.

"You've no memory of being taken in here?" he asked her.

"No. I know they took me down that way to be interrogated, but they only took me down a few doors. But surely you've seen a bit more of this place."

"They typically keep me in a place three flights of stairs down-I think underground."

"We should get to the bottom floor. How far underground?"

"I don't know."

"We need a window."

"There's one by the stairs."

"Then we go that way."

By the time they reached the stairwell it had become obvious that Inu Yasha could run a lot faster then Kagome, so he stopped to let her catch up, shaking his head in disgust. "Stop breathing so hard!" he hissed. "They'll hear you."

"I'm sorry," she gasped. "I can't keep up with you."

"But we need to get out of here as quickly as possible, Terren!" A couple of moments, and then. "Climb onto my back."

"You can hold me up?"

"I've held heavier things then you up in the past. Just grab onto my shoulders and hold on."

Kagome did so, and Inu Yasha took off again. Now it became clear that he had not been going as fast as he could due to her, because even with her weight he was practically flying down the stairs and through the corridors. Clutching his shoulders for dear life, Kagome felt her feet and hair fly out behind her, and despite their situation, she could not help but feel a thrill not unlike that of riding an antigrav board just fast enough to feel like one was flying without panicking for going too fast.

But now they were in a part of the palace neither of them knew, though they were pretty certain they were on the ground floor. "We find a window and break through it." Kagome declared. "The main entrance to this place is probably guarded anyway."

"Wait." He put he down in front of him. "I want to find the Crown Prince, the King, and the Ambassador, and kill them. I attended a conference once; they're always unguarded, and with the element of surprise I could best them both easily."

"Three against one, and two of them almost certainly physically stronger then you?" Kagome countered. "Besides, if I let you do that, it would be direct violation of the Prime Directive. The Federation can send diplomats to influence this planet's direction if they want to, but I'm not interfering like that."

"The Prime Directive." Inuyasha sneered. "I think you've told me about that, but I'm not part of your precious Starfleet; I'm an inhabitant of this planet, half-human or no, who will do what I like."

"Not when you're with me. It's because of me that these negotiations are taking place, which is bad enough, but there was nothing I could do about that, so it's because me that we were freed, and thus I am too much of an accessory to whatever you do to let you try to assassinate any leaders. And with the odds I pointed out...we can't, and you know that!"

"I know we can!"

And he turned around to take off again, and panicking, Kagome yelled, "Sit!"

He crashed to the floor, and looked up at her, very angry. "Well, now you'll bring ever single guard in the palace down on us."

She hoisted him up, and said, "Then we have to leave by the nearest window. Come on."

They went through the nearest door into what looked like a storage room for heaps of cloth, thankfully empty. There were two windows, both small and located high up.

"Get on my back, and put your head on my shoulder." Kagome obeyed. Her arms ended up around his neck, her head pressed into it. The warmth of his skin against her cheek startled her, and the pounding of her heart was not entirely due to the prospect of trying to break through such a small window.

She was pressed hard into his back, and could feel his muscles clench in anticipation of leaping. This was very different from their previous flight down the corridors, when she had billowed out behind him, practically their only physical contact being her hands on his shoulders and her feet on his hips. She was now virtually curved into him, her muscles even clenched with his.

Then he leapt, and the window hit them both full in the face, shattering around them, bits of glass piercing her arms and her shoulders. Then pain forced squeaks from her clenched teeth, but he ignored it entirely. The window had been just big enough, and he was leaping from tree to tree, her still pressed hard into his back. They were in a large garden, and he made for a wall on the other side, clearing it with one final bound, and landed on the deserted streets of a large street.

"Now what do we do?" Kagome asked.

"How am I supposed to know?" Inu Yasha growled back, yanking glass out of his shoulders. Blood gushed from them, and Kagome hastily dismounted and pulled him off the street. "Let's take care of these first."

She used most of her uniform jacket to bandage up his shoulders and her arms, and was just tying the last of the bandages around her wrist when she saw a female approaching, hurrying towards them as she got close. "Inu Yasha and Cadet Higurashi? My husband freed you. Come, I will take you to a shelter."

To Be Continued...