Disclaimer: Inuyasha is not mine. Inuyasha is not my sister's or my best friend's. I have no chance of inheriting the rights to either the character or the world from some ancient relative. Sigh. If this fails to convince you, I'll bring Sesshoumaru in to write these things for me and prove it. Er, that is….

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to my dear brother Orion, six years old, who will probably never read it. Thanks to him for his single contribution to the world of fanfic, which was to demand that I, at some point, have Inuyasha chase a cat demon up a tree. Do you think it's smart to read the Inuyasha mangas to a six-year-old? You end up getting hit with a lot of sticks named Tetsusaiga.

biggest anime fan: I KNOW PERFECTLY WELL WHERE LEBANON IS! Besides a small town in my immediate vicinity where you can buy these really good buns, I mean. Heh. Do you live near Beirut? (Did that bomb give you troubles? O.O)Yes, I have kicked-off-the-computer and internet-down problems, too. (Why do you think this chapter took so long?) Drooling and laughter! What author could ask for anything more? But with Inuyasha acting so weird, I'm not sure I would be drooling…although they are sweet. I cannot understand Tinni-chan's motives in hating Kagome. Just because she's denser that a block of lead sometimes.

Yeah, exactly, about the battle scene. She just had to be careful not to get a spear in the gut or it wouldn't matter whether it was an imp or a taiyoukai who did it, she'd still be in major trouble. Am I evil? (crawls under table to consider) Ah, well, it is the price we all must pay. By the way, if Lebanon is made of mountains and you have snow only in the mountains, this means…? Just funning. I live in mountains, too.

medlii: I get an awesome, an exciting, a cute, a 'can't wait' and a good all in one review! (does jig) I'm so happy! Thanks for telling me the beginning of the battle scene was a little slow. I had wondered. Purple fire is fun. Used to be laced with gold before she got rid of Aghenu. And of course he'll be back! I love him! Platonically speaking.

Trisaksmom: You give such good criticism, mother! Shorter sentences, check. AUGH! You're right, about Trisak. I didn't mean to cheat, honest! It was supposed to be Aerie's thoughts, I just got in a hurry. Inverted onion tower is scary? Cooooool. Have I improved with the pronouns?

Biggestanimefan'ssis: You actually reviewed chapter 1, but I'm hoping you read the rest and are reading this. I'm so glad you think it's funny, that being the reason for its existence. Your sister wouldn't really kill you for being honest, right? I want criticism! It's confusing, you say? I guess I could have had a longer transition in the first chapter, between her arriving and her wanting to leave. I just didn't want to slow it down. She doesn't fight him out of nowhere, really, does she? (wrings hands) I thought that scene was plausible, too. Her wanting to prove she wouldn't be a deadweight…. Oh well. Go on, tell me what's wrong in the now, so I can fix it as I go.

TessaCilory: I like cliffies. And they make people like you say Oh my god a lot and demand new chapters. I'm afraid 'it' is no one you know…that's all right, isn't it? Peace be on your house.

NefCanuck: Reformatted…hee. I don't think I ever put it like that. As for who it was, just read this chapter and you'll get a semi-idea! (The real explanation doesn't come until chapter eight. I am so evil.)

Wow. That's nearly a page of non-story. Let's move on.

"You!" she said, and realized that he had said the same thing in the same breath.

"What are you doing in the back of beyond, my lady?" he asked with a slight sneer, recovering his equilibrium. "I had thought you'd be seeing to your own domains."

"I haven't any domains, moron." Aerie snapped. Dammit, she'd thought he was dead. Hoped it, anyway. Trisak said he vanished right after I did, she thought. I guess he was running away. But what is he doing here? She wasn't even sure how she had recognized him. Last she'd seen him; he'd been a shadowy form rearing over the battlefield, doing his utmost to look intimidating. Now he stood there, garbed in dark green robes that covered a slim form, his face narrow and sarcastic and framed by a cascade of fiery hair. He raised an elegant orange eyebrow.

"What do you call all those lands you rule then, milady?" Only he could turn a milady into an insult.

"I'm not her, can't you get that!" she snapped. "You're the one who laid the binding in the first place; you should know I was never just Aghenu in human form!"

"Don't play innocent, lady queen. Frankly, I'm disappointed. You always set such store by duty in the old days."

"Shut up! I'm not her!" Eight months' constantly being mistaken for the faery queen, of not being sure how much of herself really was her, and not just Aghenu asserting herself, especially as her new friends had remarked constantly on this way or that that she reminded them of their lost ruler, were behind the fury in her retort. She had thought she was finally past that! Her hands balled into fists. She could wish for a nice pair of claws or the ability to growl right about now. Anything to be more intimidating that a fourteen year old girl in a stained black T-shirt and jeans. He chuckled.

"Oh, you want to fight me now? Very well. But first, satisfy my curiosity. What are you doing here in this backwater world, in my tower, since you plainly weren't expecting to see me?"

"You kidnapped one of my friends."

"Who - oh, the hanyou. You know him? My. It really is a small cosmos, isn't it?"

"And what are you doing here? Licking your wounds, I imagine." He lowered his eyelids in a bored way.

"I am recovering my strength after that minor setback, yes." She snorted.

"Minor setback? They razed your whole nasty little city and got rid of your army. You're going to have to start all over on the world-conquering thing after eight thousand years invested in that one. And you call this a minor setback?" He nodded.

"Exactly. Everything is minor if you have enough time, don't you agree, milady?"

"Feh," said Aerie, and then paused. She sounded like Inuyasha. Whatever. "I suppose you're still stealing lives every few years to keep yourself strong. You're pathetic."

"One sees one's own faults reflected in others, your majesty. Do the honors?"

"Pitiful," she muttered, for good measure. "What honors? If you want some formal challenge, forget it. Take this!" Even as she said it, she couldn't believe she'd actually used that cliched line. She was really glad she didn't actually have an audience, or they'd all be groaning at her. He stood there without moving as her bolt of power cracked toward him and enveloped him, smiling.

"Is that all?" he asked.

"Will it do for a challenge?" she snapped, although she was a little worried. He should have at least twitched. "Consider that the gauntlet across the cheek." He bowed ironically.

"Begin."

Kagome dragged along her burden. She had quite lost her voice. Inuyasha had forgotten his name again shortly after leaving the tower. It was scary, that he couldn't remember it. What would you do without your name? But he remembered her. She remembered what he'd said, back right after Tetsusaiga had been broken, how he'd never forget her. She was glad he'd kept his word.

"Lady Kagome!" said Miroku from where he was kneeling beside Sango, as the schoolgirl cum miko approached with her comrade. "Is that-" She nodded. Miroku stood up, face wreathed in a smile. "Inuyasha! You live, then!" Inuyasha blinked at the monk.

"I'm sorry," he said, "Do I know you?" Miroku turned to Kagome in alarm.

"Are you sure that is Inuyasha? He does not sound quite himself." Kagome opened her mouth to talk, but only a rasping sound came out. Miroku frowned. "What's wrong with her?" he demanded of the hanyou. "Inuyasha, or whoever you are."

"I don't know about Inuyasha, but I think that the lady is thirsty," Inuyasha replied.

"That does it. You are not Inuyasha," said Miroku, fumbling out his canteen. "How many doubles of a dead man can you meet in a day?" he muttered, approaching them and offering Kagome the water. She took it with a smile, drank, then said, still hoarsely, to the hanyou,

"Inuyasha, hang on, you can do it. You've forgotten your name again but you'll be fine, come on, you're Inuyasha and that's Miroku and I'm Kagome, you remember me, right?"

"Kagome…?" his fists clenched. "Kami I hate this! Inuyasha. That's me. But him…hang on…." He squinted at Miroku. "You're that monk, right? The perverted one with the hole in his hand? I think I remember you. Kinda." Miroku blinked at Inuyasha for a moment, then looked back at Kagome.

"Just what has happened, lady Kagome?" Kagome took another drink and then explained raspily as much as she understood.

"Inuyasha thinks he'll be fine as soon as the sun comes up. Something about natural mental shields." She finished. "All I can say is I'm going to have to start reciting the times tables or something if I want to hold onto him until dawn."

"I don't usually look like this, do I?" asked Inuyasha. They looked at him, confused by both the non-sequitor and the question itself. "I seem to remember claws," he elaborated bad-temperedly.

"Oh! Yeah, usually you do have claws, and fangs, and silver hair. Just tonight you're human, remember? That's why it'll be okay in the morning. You knew this ten minutes ago." He keeps forgetting new things, she thought. This is not good.

"Oh." He said. "Forget me trying to remember you, monk," he told Miroku a moment later. "I think I'll worry about me."

"Well, at least he sounds like himself again," sighed Miroku, laying down his staff and going to his knees at Sango's side again. "I'm not sure what was done to her. If she'd just been hit on the head there would be a bump and, knowing Sango, she'd be awake by now. Have you seen Aerie?"

"She's in the tower. Said she could handle whoever it was up there. Inuyasha, do you know who it was?"

"Some loony in robes who didn't think much of humans and talked like he wasn't a demon. 'Humans do this' 'demons are like that.' "

"Odd," remarked Miroku. "And you don't think he was a hanyou, either?"

"Definitely not. He said I was 'a most interesting creature,' I think."

"Isn't anyone worried about Aerie?" Shippou demanded. "She's in there with some guy who controls lots of demons and got inside Inuyasha's hard head and changed things around, and she's all by herself, and she's just human!"

"She's got Kirara," said Kagome.

"Who are you?" said Inuyasha.

"You're right, Shippou, I hope that she will return unharmed," said Miroku. Shippou looked around at the three adults.

"You don't care, do you? I'm going to go help her!" Miroku caught his tail as he turned to go.

"No, Shippou. You stay here."

"Why?"

"Because," said Miroku, looking thoughtfully at the tower, "I have the feeling that somehow, this is Aerie's battle."

This was her battle. This freak had been messing up her life since day three. How dare he stuff a foreign soul that he couldn't seem to kill into her body! How dare he plan to murder her as soon as his enemy was so tightly bonded to her that they would both die! She gathered up as much anger as she could get her hands on and threw it at him, knocking him back against the doorframe. The whole room was scorched by now, marks of bolts that had missed their marks streaking the stone.

"You seem to have lost control, milady," he remarked, straightening. Aerie's fists clenched.

"Shut up!"

"Really, that bolt had enough power in it to fry me, but you aren't focusing it." His tone, eyes half-lidded, was mock friendly, as if she wasn't even enough of a danger to bother treating as an enemy. "You've quite lost reign on your temper along with your power and your wit." Reign on your temper….

Trisak stood behind her where she knelt, a hand on her shoulder. She had just gotten into a dispute with an innkeeper and almost lost it. Almost, nothing. She'd blown up half the inn.

'You've got to keep better reign on your temper, Aerie,' he said. 'If you let it rule you, you can't control yourself and you can't be trusted.'

'I can't,' she said, whining a little. 'I just can't. Besides, you get angry.'

'I get angry,' he agreed, chuckling. 'But I usually don't lose control. Anger is a tool. You can use it, if you control it. Righteous fury can do a lot for your strength. Just don't let the anger be the boss, that's all. It just messes you up.' Aerie thought of Lelentaeli, their third companion, who was probably back smoothing over the blown-up bar incident. Lelentaeli never smiled. Fifty years ago, he had killed his dearest friend, by accident. He had been angry then. She raised her hand to squeeze Trisak's on her shoulder.

'I'll remember.' She promised.

"I'll remember." She repeated.

"Eh?" he said. "Are you losing your wits entirely, Lady?"

"Oh, be quiet," she said absently. She bit her lip, concentrating. What was the trick? There had to be a trick. There was always a trick to beating the bad guy. Aghenu might have known. Maybe she had left it behind, with all that other baggage. She squinched her eyes shut, pretty much forgetting that she shared the room with her enemy, and concentrated. It wasn't so easy to get hold of these memories anymore. Without that forceful personality boiling up under her own, holding them. But she preferred it this way. She wondered how many people knew just what a relief it was to be alone in your own head.

"Lady?" he said, staring at her. He smiled slowly. "Rillaimu?" he added, falling into the language of Aghenu's people. He nodded at her total lack of reaction. "While you're busy, then…" he drawled, drawing his hand back. Just as the bolt left his fingers her eyes flew open.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, her left hand moving up automatically to catch the burning missile. It hovered at her fingertips for a moment, then vanished. "So that's it, then." She lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. "Right." She said. "Right. Dark and sinister man, prepare to meet thy doom!" She grinned at her butchering of those two quotes from Peter Pan, but didn't expect him to 'get' it.

"Proud and insolent youth," he replied, raising his eyebrows, "Have at thee?" He paused. "What in thirty-six freezing hells is that supposed to mean?"

"Hey! No reading my mind!" And with that, she attacked.

Important Authors' Note: If you haven't read my prior descriptions of Aerie's past, do so. Or you'll be confused, in this chapter and those to come. AND I MADE KILEB UP LONG BEFORE I EVER READ INUYASHA, SO KEEP YOUR MOUTHS OFF ANY SIMILARITIES, OK? He has nothing to do with Naraku. They're totally different. They just got cast from the same basic literary villain mold. Cold, nasty, powerful, likes to make fun of people. Sorry, just can't stand any accusations of copying; stupid in fanfic, I know, but when you bring in an OC they had better be their own character or why bother having them? Right? So, he has nothing whatsoever to do with Naraku. Got it?

Inuyasha: Oh, like they're gonna believe you?

Trisak: They'd better. OR I WILL SIC THE BENGOSHI YOUKAI AND FLYING ORANGUTANGS ON THEM!

Inuyasha: …

Trisak: …

Inuyasha: …

Trisak: Right! Sango, I believe you had a complaint?

Sango: Yes! I did! I have spent the last two chapters unconscious! This is insulting to my dignity as a taijiya!

Trisak: Ooh, that's gotta hurt. Look, I'll give you a large role in chapters to come. Oh! I have just the idea….

Sango: This had better not be anything humiliating, sakusha.

Trisak: Don't worry, taijiya…it's not. Might annoy Miroku, though.

Miroku: I have a bad feeling about this.

Trisak's Sister: STARWARS!

Trisak: If you don't get that, I'm sorry for you, you poor Starwars-deprived person.