Title: Loose Ends

By: EVL5011  

E-mail: Omnipotentevil5011yahoo.com        

            Chimera stood up from his chair and began to speak to the mysterious aide behind him, "I want you to shadow their every moves, if they fail in completing their objectives I want you to kill them. Is that understood?" The mysterious aide nodded his head and headed towards the exit, "Before you leave, make sure that my men give Agent Orange the special relay transmitter. Have him leave it in between our two times and get yourself the titanium sword, you'll need it in case you run into InuYasha." Chimera turned his chair around and sat quietly as his aide closed the door behind him. Chimera smiled, his plans were slowly coming together, "Two cold calculating men, one deadly female assassin and a experimental aide. There's no way in hell that half-breed can win." Chimera stood up from his chair and exited the dark room. His men saluted and followed behind him, "Sergeant, have the synthetic Shikkon jewel crystals been given to my assassin's?"

            One of the two soldiers spoke, "Yes, sir! They have also been told to get familiar with their new surroundings once in the past, and to avoid contact with InuYasha until the end of the week."

            "Good, that is all. Dismissed!" Chimera came to a stop at a room filled with researchers and technicians. All of the staff was preparing the large gate for Chimera's assassins to jump. Chimera approached a window and watched as his hired killers walked into the bright white light coming from the enormous gateway. The mysterious aide followed behind them and quickly concealed his face with a black mask. With the touch of a button on his arm, the dark clothed aide disappeared and entered the portal.

Five days have passed…Kagome walked out of her house and rummaged through her backpack making sure that everything she need was accounted for, "I sure am glad this long week is over." She thought to herself. The young girl closed her bag and opened the creaky old door that lead to the Bone-Eaters Well. She threw the backpack over her shoulder and jumped into the ancient Well. As Kagome traveled in between times something caught her attention, a strange device floated many yards away from her.

"I wonder what that is?" she thought to herself as the black void gradually disappeared. She thought about the strange object as she climbed out of the Well and was greeted by InuYasha.

"What took you so long?" asked the rude hanyou.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. How inconsiderate of me!" Kagome sarcastically replied. "How was I supposed to know that you'd be here waiting?"

"Hey! Someone has to make sure that you don't get lost or attacked!" yelled InuYasha. "Well, come on! Lets get to the village."

Kagome and InuYasha made their way to the village and met up with Sango and Miroku. The four of them talked for a while on where to search for more jewel shards. They finally had come to a decision and left the village, they made their way towards the vast mountains. They walked for what seemed hours and came upon a bizarre sight.

"What the hell?" InuYasha stopped and looked around. The land in front of them was completely destroyed by fire. The trees were burnt black and the once green grass was nothing more than a faint memory.

"Who could've done such a thing?" asked Sango. "It's like nothing I've seen before, could it be the work of a demon?"

They continued walking and were stricken with terror when they came upon another ghastly sight, it was a small village. The small houses were relatively untouched, what horrified them was the countless dead lying motionless on the ground. They quickly ran to examine the lifeless bodies.

 Kagome approached one of the dead villagers and turned the body over, she gasped as she gazed upon the frozen expression of the dead man. The front of his body was covered in large blisters and what appeared to be burns. The other dead villagers also appeared to suffer the same fatal marks.

InuYasha knelt down beside a villager and covered his face with hands, "Awww…what the hell is that smell?" InuYasha removed his hands from the front of his face, "Man, it smells…it smells like rotten onions!"

Sango sniffed the air and agreed with InuYasha, "You're right, that does smell like rotten onions."

Kagome stood back up and felt a sudden burning on her hands. She looked at her fingertips and found that they had turned red. She rubbed her thumb and index finger together and a strange residue wiped clean off. She then realized that the dead weren't killed by demons, "Don't touch the dead! A demon didn't kill them!" Kagome asked the others not to touch the bodies anymore. "I think I know what killed them!"

"You do?" Miroku said with a curious look on his face.

But before Kagome even got a chance to reply, the loud sound of someone breathing had interrupted her. A tall figure dressed in a dark green suit stood many yards away from them. He remained still as he watched them freeze at the sight of him. He pointed a long metallic weapon, in which he held his two hands, at their direction. The metal weapon had a bright orange flame on the tip of it.

"That clothing…" Kagome thought to herself. "No…it can't be!" but it was. Everything slowed down and she looked at InuYasha.

Sango and Miroku were both unclear who this person was, by his physical build it was a male. They asked InuYasha and Kagome, but it was as if they had gone deaf suddenly. The four of them looked at the oddly dressed person and watched as he began walking towards them. The strange weapon that he held in his two hands was a high-pressure flamethrower. Agent Orange stopped at a safe distance from them and pressed his index finger on the trigger. A long and thick steady stream of fire shot towards them, the four of them instinctively jumped out of the way. They quickly stood back up and tried to get away from their attacker.

"Who is that?" yelled Miroku while taking cover behind a wall. "Why is he attacking us?" The stream of fire covered the wall of the house and slowly burned away.

InuYasha peeked over from where he was hiding and took a glance at their attacker, "Damn, I'd thought we'd seen the last of the Agents!" InuYasha looked over at Kagome who was shaking in fear. Sango remained still as the fire engulfed the ground.

Overhearing what InuYasha had said Miroku darted over towards him and the other two girls, "Agents?" he asked, narrowly being hit by the long stream of fire.

"Yeah, that's what I said. It's a long story, I'll explain later." Replied InuYasha. "But, first we got to find a way taking that guy out." InuYasha ran across the open and avoided the intense flame. He circled around his attacker and hid behind another small house. He then waited as his attacker looked around, searching for him and the others. "Heh, his damn mask is keeping him from seeing everything around him". InuYasha thought to himself, "Now, how can I use that to my advantage?"

Agent Orange stopped his attack and slowly walked around, he scanned his surroundings in search of his prey. He lowered his guard for one second and InuYasha darted out behind him. The hanyou swung tetsusaiga and struck the two metal containers, which held the fuel, and sliced open one of the fuel lines. Agent Orange turned around and fired his weapon, but with a lack of pressure and fuel was left vulnerable. InuYasha made a fist and punched Agent Orange across the face. He stumbled backwards and immediately removed his useless weapon from his back.

"Lets see how well you do without weapons!" quipped InuYasha as he raised tetsusaiga high in the air.

Agent Orange smiled from underneath his mask and pulled out a small aerosol can. Agent Orange pressed down on the small trigger and watched as InuYasha stopped dead in his tracks. The small can contained a low dosage of a psychotomimetic agent, which numbed InuYasha's face and impaired his judgment.

InuYasha dropped tetsusaiga and walked aimlessly, "cough my face…" The hanyou made his way over to Kagome, Sango, and Miroku.

            Sango and Miroku both grabbed InuYasha by the arms and rushed him over to safety. They had no idea what he had just been sprayed with. Greatly concerned, Kagome reached into her backpack and pulled out a small towel. She wiped the liquid from his face.

            "Kagome, can you please tell us who that guy is?" asked Sango who had been quiet until now.

            With a bit of hesitation Kagome explained as quickly as she could, "He's from my time, and the last time me and InuYasha dealt ran up against them was a while back." Kagome looked back down at InuYasha, who was rambling incoherently.

            "That explains his weapon, but why is he here?" Sango peeked over the side of the house and noticed that their attacker had disappeared.

            "The first time we ran up against them, they wanted the Shikkon jewel shards." Explained Kagome, "Is he still out there?" she asked.

            "No, I think he's gone. Maybe without his weapon he doesn't want to take us on." Sango walked out from behind the small house and cautiously looked around. Miroku followed behind her and kept a close eye on Kagome while they searched for Agent Orange.

            Kagome focused her attention back on InuYasha, who had stopped babbling nonsense, "InuYasha, how do you feel?" she asked.

            InuYasha rubbed his face with his hands and looked up at her, "Fine, I think. What the hell did he spray at my face?"

            "How am I supposed to know? I don't know the first thing about chemicals!" Kagome yelled.

            "Well, he is from your time! You should know something on what he just sprayed me with!" InuYasha stood back up and walked away from Kagome, without even thanking her.

            "Stupid InuYasha, why does he assume that I know what chemical that was?" Kagome closed her backpack and threw the contaminated cloth on the ground and caught up with the others.

            Miroku picked up tetsusaiga from the ground and returned it back to InuYasha, who was still rubbing his eyes. "It appears that our new enemy has fled." Miroku looked at the flamethrower and knelt down beside it. "Kagome, what strange device is this?" he asked.

            "It's a horrible weapon from our time, its used to burn people alive. It was used in many of wars and is still used by the different governments." Kagome looked at the useless weapon and shuddered at the thought of being burned alive by it.

            InuYasha looked around angrily, " I guess this guy was smarter than the other Agents I dealt with."

            "How many of these so-called Agents have you fought before?" asked Sango. "Are you going to let us in on what happened?"

            InuYasha took a deep breath, "Well, it's a long story, but since you definitely need to know…" InuYasha asked that they sit down for a while and explained. Sango and Miroku were both shocked and terrified by what the Agency had done with its own soldiers and how they wanted to alter the course of time. Just realizing something InuYasha turned to Kagome, "Hey, what did happen to the scroll we took from them?"

            Kagome thought for a second, "Last time I had it, I gave it to Lady Kaede and I forgot about it. Could that be what they're after?"

            "Probably, but they don't know that we don't have it. So, they're going to keep coming after us." InuYasha sat down on the ground and started to think. "The scroll is safe right now, but where did they come from? Didn't the inside of the mountain collapse?"

            After a long series of questions, they came to the conclusion that their enemy was coming out from the mountain once more. They would have to travel to the mountain, where they first found the ancient gateway and destroy it once and for all. Unknown to them, someone was watching from on top a small house. The person remained hidden by a stealth device, and was following their every move.

            They began their journey towards the vast mountains and Kagome began to wonder something, "That guy, he wasn't dressed like an Agent. I wonder…" With the long road ahead of them they ventured across the quiet plains. They had no clue as to what awaited them ahead.

            Meanwhile, many miles away…Shikyo and Gregor rummaged through their weapons and picked out what they needed. Suddenly, a voice was heard coming from one of their many bags, "Shikyo…Gregor…Agent Orange…One of you three had better respond!" shouted the voice.

            Gregor approached the bag and found a small radio inside. He pressed the button and spoke, "Chimera?" he asked.

            "Yes, its me. Is InuYasha dead?" Chimera asked.

            "No, not yet. Agent Orange went out a few hours ago to kill InuYasha, but hasn't reported in. How are you talking to us? Aren't you in the present?" Gregor asked.

            "I am, I had Agent Orange leave a small device in between the void. That's how I'm able to talk to you with the time differential, the transmitter acts like a connection between the past and present." Chimera sounded upset as he explained. "You three have a two more days to eliminate InuYasha and recover my scroll. If you three fail, I'll see to it that you're all buried in that time. Is that understood?"

            "Yes, we understand." Replied Gregor. He put down the radio and looked at Shikyo. "Let's go, we have to take out this kid before he finds us."

            Shikyo and Gregor began to walk out from their temporary home, the caves that house the ancient gateway. Gregor and Shikyo both walked in different directions and disappeared, both wanted to see who could kill InuYasha first. Gregor held his green bag tightly, inside were numerous explosive devices. Shikyo on the other hand, carried a metal briefcase which housed a small assortment of guns and all of her different disguises, all which she made for the current time period.