Hiya! In this exciting installment, the author actually keeps his promises! Well, sort of. If 10:30 PM Monday night isn't one week from Monday, then I'll print out this entire story and EAT it. In any case, I'm back again, with some fresh story material. This chapter, I think, is MUCH much better than the last one. I was really 'on' while writing it.

There's something special about it as well. Notice the chapter number. Not the number on the Chapter Select bar, the chapter number below near the name. That's right, Chapter 42. 42 is a number that's very meaningful to me. It's the Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. (To see where this totally nonsensical BS came from, read Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. The fifth book came out a few years ago, with a blurb below the title reading, The Fifth in the Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker's Trilogy. It's fun stuff, even if you don't like sci-fi.) Anyway, 42 is the perfect number...but this is not the perfect chapter. Such is the natural perversity of the universe.

Anyway, I've some reviews to answer. Tally ho!

Kai19: Tobias doesn't have time to pass the sword. Tybalt's back! That dastardly rival...always showing up at the most inopportune moments. Almost forgotten about him, hadn't you? HADN'T YOU?

About the demons dying, I hadn't thought of that. But it shall be taken into consideration.

...You know, I can't decide if it's a good or a bad thing that you did. That one paragraph about the General's desires for the jewel...it's making me rethink entire huge chunks of the plot. Thanks a freaking lot. That's 50 pages I have to rewrite now. /sarcasm Seriously, thanks for bringing that up. It's an excellent point. Why does the General want the jewel? He's secure enough in his own power that he probably doesn't feel the need for any more...maybe I should ask him. (JOKE, to you slow ones.)

Yeah, the Kikyo issue is a bit of a sticky wicket right about now. As are the other demons. You might see one in this chapter! Hell, you WILL see one. How's that for fast delivery on promises?

Yeah, I gave those damn voices the ol' Gary Thunder one-two! One case of Jolt Cola, and two bottles of Jim Beam. That'll either shut up those blasted voices, or kill me dead. One of the two. Either way...blessed SILENCE!

Ryguy5387: Thanks for the compliment, but personally, I think it's even better when there's a good chapter that DOESN'T take forever to come out with. Like this one!

hersheykiss1012: Yes. Yes, you should.

hanyou: At the least opportune moment, of course. When else?

I keep feeling like I've forgotten to add something important...well, if I have, and I remember it, I'll add it. (Yes, now I remember. For those who have played Starcraft ever [HIGHLY recommended], the topic title is the code for invincible units! [in addition to something said by the Archons] There you go! Cheat your way through Single-Player Mode...but don't expect it to work online!) STORY!

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Chapter 42: Power Overwhelming

"Go away, Tybalt," Tobias said quietly.

"You think you'll get rid of me that easily? No sir. We're having a battle, you and I, and we're battling right now!" Tybalt danced around Tobias, with mock thrusts and feints, trying to get his attention. Tobias merely stared ahead.

"I'm not in the mood for a battle right now," he said. "Please, just leave."

"And I was all ready to have some fun tonight." Tybalt tried to keep up his canny front, but anyone could tell that he was bewildered by Tobias's reaction. What was the cause of this new behavior? Regardless, Tybalt soldiered on.

"Normally, Tybalt, I would take you up on such an offer. Right now, however, I'm just unfit for battling. My heart isn't in it."

"I couldn't give a rat's ass about what your heart is in or not. All I know is, unless you fight me, your heart will be impaled on the end of my blade!" Tybalt lunged at Tobias and slashed at him once. Tobias jerked as the sharp sword cut a long, red line over his throat and face. Still he did not move from his spot.

"Attack me if you will, but I will not fight you." Enraged, Tybalt attacked Tobias again, opening up another long wound. Tobias was as impassive as a statue.

As suddenly as a rock breaking the tranquil surface of a pond, Kagome came awake. Her limbs felt stiff, and her eyelids fluttered with sleep, but she was conscious. Beside her, she could see her friends begin to gain consciousness as well. She sat up, a bit groggy.

What happened back there??? she thought worriedly. Looking around, Kagome heard shouting and yelling. She saw Tybalt furiously slashing at Tobias and Tobias not responding at all. What the hell?! She jumped to her feet...but she was still a little woozy, and the action unbalanced her. With a hard smack and a cry of pain, she fell over and hit her knee on a sharp rock.

Tybalt backed up a bit, eyes wide with wonder.

"What is...with you today?" he said, fairly awestruck. "Nothing I'm doing is working..." Just then, he heard Kagome cry out and turned around to see her. Tobias, too, turned his head. His eyes widened.

Tybalt slowly smiled. "You care about her, don't you?" he whispered. He leaped away into the trees. Before anyone knew it, he was behind Kagome, holding both of his pistols to her head. "Either fight me..." He bared his teeth, like an animal. "Or the girl dies."

I can take a lot...but I can't let Kagome get hurt. Tobias leaped to his feet, and Inuyasha unsheathed his sword; but it was Kagome who moved first.

Oddly, she felt no fear or panic; instead, she felt a calmness that seemed to pulse through her body, as if she knew everything was under control. Kagome glanced down at her right hand and saw that it was glowing white. Balling her hand up into a fist, she whipped around and smashed Tybalt in the nose.

The force of her blow staggered him, but only enough to throw him off his stride. Unaccustomed to being discommoded like that, Tybalt raised both pistols and began to fire. As if by instinct, Kagome held her hand up in front of her. The bullets sped toward her and ricocheted off a silvery-white wall that had suddenly materialized. Tybalt ceased fire, astonished. Kagome gave him a small smile.

She curled her hand into a fist again. The wall of energy coalesced into a small sphere. Kagome didn't know how she knew what she was doing, but at the moment, she didn't especially care. With a flick of her wrist she sent her ball of power zooming towards Tybalt. He twisted in his spot as if trying to dodge it, but it slammed into him with such force that it knocked him three feet deep into a solid rock face some distance away.

Kagome lowered her hand and immediately swayed on her feet. She caught herself before she fell, and sat down rather heavily. Okay, how did I just do that? Also, how did I know how to do that? This doesn't make any sense...

Tybalt came out of his crater in the rock wall. He was bleeding heavily from a head wound and looked absolutely boiling. He saw Kagome sitting down, head in her hand, and leaped at the opportunity. He dashed towards Kagome, eager to repay her in spades for the humiliation he had caused.

Tobias was shocked. Where the fuck did THAT come from? Her miko powers aren't that good... He raised his sword, but Inuyasha moved first. He sailed in and clashed swords with Tybalt before he got within ten feet of Kagome.

"I won't let you touch my mate," he growled, in a voice that shook Tybalt.

"Your mate?" he asked, a little uncertainly. "So that's what this is about?" He grinned. "Very protective, aren't you." He lunged toward Inuyasha and locked swords. "A fight is a fight. As long as someone battles me, I'm sated. I would much prefer him," he jerked his head in Tobias's direction, "but as he doesn't seem fit to attack I'll just have to go with you." And with that, Tybalt began a devastating offensive.

He flew in, both swords extended. Inuyasha dove to meet him and they battled furiously. As Tybalt knocked Inuyasha into some trees, Tobias came over to Kagome.

"What was that?" he said hoarsely. "Since when can you do something like that?"

"I...I don't know," Kagome said. "I just...he grabbed me, and then all of a sudden I knew what I needed to do. Like it was instinct or something." She glanced at the battle. "I think I'm getting more control over my miko powers."

Inuyasha broke through Tybalt's defense and rushed him with everything he had. He scored a long gash across Tybalt's unarmored chest. Tybalt staggered, but quickly returned the favor with a strike that went right through Inuyasha's fire-rat cloak. Inuyasha was surprised at this, to say the least. Tybalt smirked.

"You think my swords will be stopped by such a weak piece of cloth? These things are more powerful than anything you've ever dreamed of." He pressed the attack with a one-two to Inuyasha's face and torso. He was about to add a third strike when an arrow rushed past his nose, making him do a very undignified scrabble to stop moving forward. He looked back and saw Kagome, already stringing another arrow to her bow.

"Dedicated bitch, isn't she," he murmured. "Always on the offensive. If it weren't for those bloody powers of hers, she'd be dead by now. You'd love that, wouldn't you," he spoke louder, hoping to catch Inuyasha's attention. Unfortunately, Inuyasha had heard the whole thing and lunged at Tybalt.

Tybalt feinted to the right and struck, but all he hit was open air. Inuyasha caromed off a tree and landed right on Tybalt, bowling the other man over. One of Tybalt's swords flew from his hand and embedded itself in the ground.

Inuyasha seized this opportunity and leaped for the still-quivering sword, but Tybalt's other sword flashed downwards to sever his hand. Only with a quick flick of Inuyasha's wrist did he save his hand from being cut off. Tybalt moved in and plucked his other sword from the ground like he was picking a flower. Unexpectedly, he lashed out at Inuyasha with a fierce blow. While Inuyasha recovered, Tybalt abruptly broke off his attack and ran towards Tobias.

Tobias was still injured from Tybalt's earlier taunts and wounds, and he was not expecting an attack, so he failed to respond in time. Tybalt hit him with sword slash after sword slash, so fast it looked like a blur to Kagome. One last upward cut and Tobias fell backwards, bloodied and torn.

Tybalt grinned again, twirled his swords in his hand, and plunged them both into Tobias's chest, in a downward motion above his armor. He yanked them out held them high above his head, preparing for the final blow.

But another arrow flew towards him, this one much closer to the mark as it plunged through his back to poke out between his ribs. Tybalt hissed and grimaced, hastily sheathing one of his swords and ripping out the arrow.

"Oh, fuck this," he snarled. He leaped away, into the woods. Before Inuyasha could get close enough, he had gone.

Tobias was injured but far from dead or dying. He stood up slowly and braced himself against a tree. He seemed to be deep in thought. Kagome approached tentatively.

"Every time I fight him, he thrashes me," Tobias muttered. "What is his secret? And what's with those swords?"

"I was wondering the same thing myself," said Inuyasha. Tobias jerked his head upward and looked.

"You know, sometimes I wish I could say something without you hearing every damn word of it," he said testily. "Anyway, what were you going on about?"

"His swords. They're as strong as yours or mine. What's with that? Is there a Fourth sword out of the Three that you missed somehow?" Tobias looked at him, a bit derisively.

"I have researched this topic a bit, you know," he said, annoyed. "There are only three. Everybody knows that. The only one who knows more about them than I do is the General. Maybe the guy that forged them, if he's even still around." He turned to Kagome. "But like I was saying, how did you do that back there?"

"And like I was saying, I don't know," Kagome countered. "If I knew, I'd do it all the time. From what Kaede told me and from what I've done before, I can only do those things when my life is in danger."

"Makes sense." Inuyasha wiped some of Tybalt's blood off his sword. "When do you think you'll be able to use them fully? I know Kikyo could-" He broke off, embarrassed. Kagome looked away. Tobias looked at the both of them.

"You shouldn't be so sensitive about an old flame," he croaked through a mouthful of blood. "So Inuyasha used to like her. So what? He loves you know. You're his mate. And from what I know of demons, that's a permanent thing."

"Wait a second. How do YOU know anything about demons?" Inuyasha said.

"I did live in this era a while ago. I've run into my fair share of demons."

"But why haven't we run into you before?" said Kagome. The look Tobias gave her was unmistakable. Shouldn't that be obvious?

"You think Feudal Japan is the only place in the world with demons ? There are many places the world over that had demons, around this time. I think I was in the forests of Eastern Europe and Russia, around this time. There were demons aplenty." He spat out some blood. "As a matter of fact...you remember a few months ago, how I'd always walk in when you were...together?"

Kagome blushed a little and Inuyasha snorted angrily. Obviously they did remember.

"You think that was coincidence?" Kagome nodded. "Well, yes, at first; but eventually I made it a point to try and interrupt those sort of things."

"And just why did you fucking do that?" snarled Inuyasha.

Tobias looked away before answering. "I've seen instances...where a demon male courts a human female. The demon pretends to be in love with the human, and the human grows attached to the demon. But it's a trick." He coughed. "Let me tell you...there aren't many things more gruesome than to see the body of a girl who was raped and killed by her demon 'lover' who had pretended to get close to her. How was I to know Inuyasha wasn't pulling the same thing?" Inuyasha growled.

"Don't you fucking DARE even THINK that I'd do something like that to Kagome. She's MINE, and I won't let ANYONE hurt her. Not even me," he finished assertively.

"I know that now, Inuyasha..." Tobias said plaintively. "But I didn't then. All I saw was the scenario I had seen dozens of times before. I didn't want to get directly involved; experience tells me that that's not a good idea. It just leads to an ugly confrontation that goes nowhere. So I observed. I put stress on your relationship, to see if it was real enough and strong enough that you'd stay together. If it was a fake, you would never have put up with it that long."

"I don't know whether to give you a hug or a punch in the face," said Kagome. Both Inuyasha and Tobias looked at her. "But you were...you thought you were doing the right thing, so I'll forgive you."

"I won't, though," said Inuyasha through gritted teeth. "All those times...all those times I was seconds away from giving Kagome what she wanted and you walked in on us...all those times were ON PURPOSE?!" He lunged at Tobias.

"SIT!"

BOOM.

"OW!"

"Don't hurt him!" yelled Kagome. "He's hurt enough as it is." Inuyasha was ready to throw a retort back at Kagome when his ears pricked up. He heard something in the bushes.

"Hold on a second," he said quietly. As soon as the spell wore off, he crept into the shrubbery, looking around, sniffing the air. There was no mistaking it. Koga was nearby.

"Oi! Koga!" he shouted. "I know you're there. Come out!" The bushes rustled a little, and Koga came out of the undergrowth. He walked straight past Inuyasha, refusing to acknowledge him. Upon seeing Kagome, he stopped.

"Hello, Kagome," he said dully. His voice was flat and lifeless.

"What's with you? Usually you're all into the 'My woman' thing by now. What gives?" demanded Inuyasha. He walked over beside Kagome. "Besides, even if you did, you have no claim. Kagome is my mate. See?" And he pulled back her hair to reveal the bite mark.

"Oh...that's nice." Kagome was puzzled at this complete lack of reaction. She decided to pry. "What's wrong, Koga? What happened?" She thought about it for a minute before realizing something was very different. "Your shards are gone!"

"Yeah," he said. "They were taken."

"By what?" demanded Inuyasha again.

"What happened, Koga?" pressed Kagome.

"Was it the General?" supplied Tobias quietly.

Koga looked obstinate for a second; then, to everyone's surprise, he burst into tears. Sobbing, he clutched at Kagome for support. Inuyasha growled and made to yank him off, but Kagome stopped him.

"He...he just came and...and started killing people..." sobbed Koga. "We couldn't stop him...we tried, gods, we tried...killing our best warriors..." He choked back another sob before continuing. Kagome tried her best to comfort him. "He took my shards...ripped them right out...then he killed everyone..." He swallowed. "Some of the women and children escaped...scattered everywhere...don't know where they are..." He dissolved into fresh tears. He let go of Kagome and sank to his knees, clutching his face in his hands, tears streaming down his claws.

"Wh...why?" Koga whispered. "Why would he...why would anyone...do something like that?"

"He's a bastard," snarled Inuyasha.

"He's a monster," suggested Kagome.

"He's evil," said Tobias quietly.

"And he's here to tell you why." Everyone whirled to see the General standing behind them.

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What's the biggest challenge of an actor? MOTIVATION! What's the greatest mystery of the General? MOTIVATION! Is the General an actor? You decide!

...

He's not. I don't know what came over me just now. Disregard that bit. Too much whiskey and soda, that's it. Anyhoo, you know what to do...(hey, that rhymes)...REVIEW!!!

(hey, that rhymes too.)

(hey, THAT rhymes...just shoot me now.)