Key to my Heart
IrisBlue
A/N: I'm sorry to say but don't get used to this quick update of the chapters. I don't know if I'll be going home to the internet or not. I'm currently at my aunt's house as she does have the 'net so...yeah. Anyway, enjoy.
Six
It had been after Sesshomaru left her company that Raven noticed the eyes she had been seeing before her arrival here had belonged to the demon lord himself. What that meant exactly she couldn't be sure. On their way to the well so Raven could go back to her own time, the small group entered a village of humans. They seemed reluctant to let Inuyasha or Shippou stay but the others they were all too glad to house. Raven kept her hood up so people didn't stare at the jewel embedded in her flesh in the center of her forehead. She really didn't want the questioning glares. A group of women in kimono walked by and smiled gently at the monk who accompanied the group. Miroku grinned before turning on his heel and walking toward the girls.
"Would any of you lovely young women like to...bare my children?" He asked with a cocky smile. Sango simply rolled her eyes at the sound of hands smacking flesh. Miroku sadly walked back with both his cheeks cherry red in color and slightly swollen.
"You know Miroku, if you keep asking that you're..."
"Bound to find a woman who says yes?" Miroku asked with a suddenly reappearing smile. Kagome sighed and rolled her eyes.
"No." She said. "I was going to say you're bound to get killed by someone."
"Yeah like an angry father or maybe another man who is with a woman you ask." Sango said drily. Inuyasha sighed as he looked around the mute village. It didn't seem like anyone was going to take in either him or Shippou. Whenever the group passed and Inuyasha tried to make eye contact, the person inside the doorway or window closed up quickly.
"Maybe we should just try to find somewhere outside the village." He suggested. Kagome looked back at him, her eyes blazing.
"I don't care if you have to sleep on the doorstep, I haven't taken a shower in two days because of you!" She screamed.
"It's not my fault humans smell like pigs when they don't bathe!" Inuyasha screamed in return.
"Here they go again." Shippou said from the ground where he sat.
"SIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT!" Kagome screamed. Instantly Inuyasha did a face-plant into the dirt road. His arms flailed out as he went down, his legs swept up from under him. Kagome angrilly crossed her arms and turned her back from him with her nose stuck slightly in the air. Raven was never going to get used to this. Maybe she needed one of those necklaces for Beast Boy when he started telling his lame jokes.
"The charm never stops around here." She said in her monotone voice. Sango smiled sweetly at the demon princess before sighing and turning to watch Inuyasha jump to his feet and the two 'friends' ran off in yet another of their ritual arguments. A window opened and a plump, black-topped head poked out at the group. Her dark blue, nearly black eyes looked inquisitively (I'm not exactly sure on the speeling here) at the scene rolling out before her. Once again Kagome sat Inuyasha. He got up and gasped after being sat about twelve times in a row. After taking a bite of air, he jumped up and began yelling at Kagome yet again and again she sat him.
"Excuse me." The two suddenly stopped their fighting and turned toward the buttery-soft voice emanating from the window nearby. "Can you truly contain that demon?" She asked. Kagome smiled and nodded.
"Half demon." Shippou corrected before getting kicked in the head by Inuyasha himself. Shippou jumped up and turned on the half demon and the two of them began screaming back and forth.
"If you can contain him then you're welcome to stay here, if that's what you're looking for." Kagome nodded with a smile too big for her face.
"Oh yes! Please, we've been looking all over town but no one is willing to let us stay with them!" The woman looked over Inuyasha who now held up a screaming a kicking Shippou by his fox tail.
"I can see why." The woman said in less-than-pleasant tones. "He's an absolute brute!" Inuyasha dropped Shippou without a care for him and snapped his eyes up toward the woman.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" He screamed before getting slapped on his arm by Kagome.
"Inuyasha, she's willing to take us in if you behave." She said between clenched teeth. "So shut up!"
"Besides," Sango started. "If you didn't act like such a brute, people wouldn't call you one." Inuyasha was about to start up again before looking at Kagome who was readying her lips for the 'S' word. He zipped his mouth, crossed his arms and turned his head down toward his left like a child. Raven looked around at the others as they walked into the now open door and the woman standing in the doorway. Something about this place made her keep on her toes, aside from the fact that her father wasn't dead in this time. That completely set her off guard and threw off any chances she'd had at being at ease.
"Well, Dear, are you coming inside or staying out here? Your choice." The woman said. After battling her rebelling emotions, she sighed and walked reluctantly into the house, the door closing behind her. Now, more than ever, she had the feeling of being trapped with no way out.
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Since Raven had left not a single alarm in the city went off. It was almost like the city was on hold, waiting, saving itself for when the fifth Titan would return and put balance back in the world. Robin found it rather eerie that the city was quiet. He liked the...break, for lack of a better word but dammit it just wasn't the same without Raven. He slammed his fist onto the counter in the kitchen area, startling a passing Starfire. She looked up, her usual happy eyes drained and void of any emotion at all. Raven's disappearance had had this affect on all the remaining Titans. Titans all over the world looked for their lost comrad just incase she'd ended up somewhere else in the world. One by one the Titans called in all with negatives on the whereabouts of their dark bird of night.
At dinner, Beast Boy poked his tofu meatloaf with his fork. He mushed it around and finally started calling out shapes in it. Several times he'd seen Bart Simpson, Stewie Griffin, Genie, and once something he called Gizmo in a chokehold by Cyborg. Needless to say Cy liked that one.
"On Tamaran, a time when a friend is missing calls for a celebration of safe return. We dance and scream out the name of our friend until they return." Starfire said in a monotone almost resmbling Raven's.
"Hey, you guys remember that time we all dressed up like Robin when he was gone?" BB asked as he played with his 'food' more. Robin's eyes bugged out and twitched.
"I'm not putting on a leotard." He said.
"Maybe we should!" Starfire said, perking up all the while. "It was after all of us dressed in your costumes did you return to us, friend Robin!" Starfire shouted out. The kid with the tail whose name had turned out to be Haruko walked into the room. Four sets of eyes turned and glared at him until he curled up, whimpering in fear and felt his skin burn with those glares.
"Aren't you supposed to be doing something?" Cyborg asked as he pushed away his food. Haruko only nodded, straightened himself and walked to the table. "Then why aren't you doing it?"
"Because, I think I know what century she's in. I can't get an exact date until we establish solid contact."
"I thought you were a time traveller." Beast Boy asked after dropping his fork into his food.
"Hey, I've never had to actually track someone, especially someone like her, through time. I didn't set the date she travelled to, she just went there."
"So, how do we establish solid contact?" Robin asked.
"You mentioned that your communicators were designed to be able to read perfectly across the globe and even through magnetic and eletrical interference?" Robin and Cyborg nodded. "Well, if you could maybe, like, set up an intense antenna or something then you could reach her in her century and I could pinpoint her. There's no telling where or not I'll be able to bring her back, though. This has never happened to me; pulling people back through portals has never come up. It might have only been a one-way trip."
"Dude, are you sure your only thirteen?" Beast Boy asked. "I hear you talking but I don't understand a single word. It's like that when Cyborg or Gizmo starts talking. All I hear is this...whistling in my ears like its..."
"Alright, let's give this a go." Haruko nodded at Robin as the team leader stood to his booted feet. "But, what if you can't bring her back?" Haruko only shrugged but Robin read his face. One of two options: she stays or they go.
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Trigon looked at Sesshomaru through his shadowed eyes as the demon lord walked through the forest. Rin was skipping happily ahead of him with a reluctant Jaken on her heels. Sesshomaru stopped in his steady gait and turned to look the hooded demon directly in his eyes. Trigon smiled, though it was to himself, and stepped forward into the strand of sunlight filtering through the canopy above.
"I refuse to help you." Sesshomaru said simply. With that said he turned and began walking again.
"You have seen this girl so surely you understand my need to be ri..." Sesshomaru turned and looked sharply at Trigon.
"I understand that you attempted to deceive me to save your own existence. That child is your own daughter therefore she is your problem, not mine. You want to be rid of her, do it yourself. I have no need or want to put myself in a feud like this." He began to turn again but Trigon caught hold of his kimono's sleeve.
"You really should reconsider. She is a danger to demons."
"No, she is not. She does not endanger me therefore I will take no such part in your plan. Besides, her goal is to leave this realm and return to her own. Leave her be for a time and she will be gone."
"Listen to me, Sesshomaru! If not for your interference I would have killed your father! I can easily break you in half with a single word!" Trigon yelled making the birds in the trees above flutter off. Sesshomaru reached down and pulled out the Tokijin from its sheath in one fluid motion with the tip stopping at Trigon's hooded throat.
"I am not my father." Not one simgle emotion passed through Sesshomaru's face as he spoke. "Do not take my arm as a weakness and it would be a mistake to take the girl who travels with me as a softness. I am not so overwhelmed by emotion as my father was. You may be older and more experienced but I am the more powerful demon. Ask Naraku." His voice, as calm as ever, Sesshomaru kept his glare steady into the hood as he pulled the Tokijin from Tirigon and once again sheathed it. "If you wish to dispose of that girl do it of your own will and strength. I am no one's puppet." Once again Trigon smiled to himself and slid back into the shadows.
"Very well, 'Lord' Sesshomaru. Just remember if you do not assist me, I will not assist you."
"I have no need for your assistance nor will I ever need it." Once again Sesshomaru turned and walked away but this time uninterrupted by Trigon. The demon lord looked ahead at where Rin was stooped down examining a ladybug perched on the stem of a flower. Jaken stood above her but his attention was focused onto his lord.
"Is everything all right, Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken asked in a slightly worried tone. Sesshomaru said nothing as he passed the two and began walking through the trees. Rin jumped to her feet and followed, looking up at him as she walked by his side.
"When can we go see Kagome again?"
"Do not ask such questions of Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken cried out. Rin turned and stuck her tongue out at the small green demon."
"Perhaps I should go to them tonight." Rin smiled and looked at Sesshomaru's clawed hand wondering if he would mind too much if she took it in hers. Deciding that she would just have to find out, she wrapped her tiny fingers around his index, middle and ring finger. When he didn't pull away, she tightened her grasp ever so slightly until he curled his fingers up around her own. Smiling, Rin tried her best to keep pace with him as they walked. (A/N: I personally thought this little scene was cute as hell!)
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Raven woke the next morning to the mouth-watering smell of cooking fish. She sat up on the mat she'd slept on and looked around at the others who still slept. Even at home she was usually the first to wake. She stood, looking around the tiny house until she came across the smaller room where the smell was coming from. The woman who'd taken them in for the night smiled up at Raven.
"I don't suppose you have any herbal tea, do you?" Raven asked. The woman smiled and looked to the pan full of water over the fire next to the fish.
"You're a rather light sleeper." The woman said pleasantly. "I thought for a moment you slept like the dead but the moment I began walking around this morning you began to stir."
"Yeah. I've never been a deep sleeper." Raven instantly began fixing herself a cup of tea and sipped gingerly at as she sat down next to the plump woman.
"By the way, my name is Yori. What's your?"
"Raven." Yori smiled again.
"It seems to fit you. Where are you from? The way to dress it doesn't look like you're from here. Would you like a kimono maybe?"
"I come from J...a place far from here. I'm actually on my way home. And thank you but I'd rather keep my own clothes."
"Alright. How did you come by that pleasant young girl and the half demon?" Yori asked, an inquisitive look on her face.
"I just found them when I arrived here. They offered to show me the way home."
"So, this is your first time in Japan?" Raven nodded with a little more enthusiasm than needed. It was her first time in Japan and in this century! Kagome yawned and stretched as she walked into the room. Smiling, she sat next to Raven and watched the fish cook. "Good morning, Dear." Yori said with a smile. Kagome returned the smile and looked around.
"We should probably get going after we eat. We've still got a lot of ground to cover." Raven nodded as she finished off the cup of tea and went for another. It was slightly before noon when the group left, waving at Yori as they went. One by one, they'd all gotten up, ate at once then cleaned up before leaving. Both Raven and Kagome were glad to have bathed before leaving again. Yori waved them off as they went
"I wish we could go there again. Yori was nice." Shippou said with a smile as he hung from Kagome's shoulders.
"She was rather kind, wasn't she?" Sango asked with a smile.
"I don't know why but I got this weird feeling when I was standing outside of her door." Raven said after they'd left the village. "I can't say what it was, I'm not actually sure, but it just felt...off." Inuyasha looked at her with a raised brow.
"I smelled something that seemed off. It smelled like she was kinda hiding something." He said after a moment's hesitation.
"Inuyasha, you feel that way about anyone." Kagome said as she rolled her eyes. "It might just be nothing. Besides, we were staying with her. She had a right to not tell us everything about herself."
"It wasn't something like that. It was something that was, I don't know, soul depth." Everyone stopped walking and looked at Raven, their eyes wide. "When I walked into her house it felt like I was suddenly becoming a prisoner."
"I'm sure it was nothing. Kagome would have known if it had been something like that, huh Kagome?" Sango said. Kagome nodded. Miroku sighed, tapping his chin with his curled fingers.
"Perhaps it was just your uneasiness about being this far from home." He said and looked up at the demon princess.
"I don't think it was that." Miroku shrugged and shifted his hand over his staff. "Whatever it was, it was gone when I woke this morning." Raven delved deep into her mind to find the meaning of it but ran straight into something sokid and warm. She looked up to meet eyes with Sesshomaru. It turned out that she'd dug so deeply into her mind that she'd walked off from the others.
"I knew I smelled my brother somewhere around here." He said while putting some healthy space between her body and his. "Where exactly is he?" Raven walked past him half expecting him to follow. When she turned her head, she was surprised to find him on her heels. The others had stopped a bit up the path to wait for Raven. Inuyasha growled in his throat when he saw Sesshomaru trailing behind Raven.
"What do you want this time?" Inuyasha snapped.
"Inuyasha, maybe he has something to tell us." Kagome said while stepping forward.
"Keep on your guard. I believe Trigon will attempt something to rid himself of his child-to-be."
"If you don't mind my asking, why are you telling us?" Miroku asked with his brows raised.
"If anyone is to kill my brother, it will be me." Inuyasha scoffed as he rolled his eyes.
"Figures." The half demon took a step toward his brother as they locked eyes. "You really shouldn't try to do me any favors, Sesshomaru."
"I'm not. I'm doing other demons a favor by getting rid of you myself."
"Guys, I don't mean to interrupt this reunion but I need to get home soon." Raven said as she stepped between the two brothers with daggers flying between them. "I don't think I could muster up the strength to defeat him again."
"It wouldn't be wise to destroy him." Sesshomaru said and turned his attention away from his brother to the girl between them. "If you do, you'll die with him. If not for him you wouldn't exist."
"I never said destroy him, I said defeat him. Not always the same thing." Raven said as she turned up to face the demon lord.
"Hey, Sesshomaru, where's Rin?" Kagome asked. He looked from Raven to Kagome still with his blank face.
"Waiting for me in a clearing up ahead. Perhaps you should go see her. I need to speak with child alone." He looked agaid down at Raven. Inuyasha growled again but finally left with the others on his heels. They all turned to look at Sesshomaru before following Kagome to the clearing. "I've spoken again to your father. He requests my help in ridding this land of you." Raven looked up again to face him, her brows drawn together.
"I'm not sure I understand." Sesshomaru took a few steps back to look at her directly in her face.
"He has spies all over this world, as you've heard. He knows your every move and most before you make them. When he speaks with me about getting rid of you it sounds like he wants more than to just put you back in your time."
"But...killing me would be pointless. It's already happened in my time. Killing me wouldn't stop it from happening again."
"However, it would put pride back in him. For a demon as powerful as him to be killed by his impure-blood daughter is degrading."
"Pre-revenge." Raven said in her monotone but still confused. Sesshomaru only nodded.
"I've told him I will not interfere so I cannot; however, that still doesn't stop me from wanting my own revenge."
"I'm still not exactly sure why you're helping me." To that Sesshomaru said nothing. After a moment of silence, Raven pursed her lips, turned and began walking in the direction the others had gone.
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Robin looked down at the static screen of the communicatorhe held in his hand. He was standing on the roof of the tower with his most powerful antenna sitting next to him but still...nothing. Haruko was definitely going to have to explain a bit further. Starfire walked into the roof and sat beside Robin.
"Friend Robin, how is it going? Have you yet reached freind Raven?" Robin sighed, closed the communicator once more and looked up.
"No. Nothing but static. Maybe this antenna isn't powerful enough." Starfire seemed to think on that for a moment before she blinked and flew off at her fastest. Robin fixed his hair which had been thrust backward at Star's departure. When she returned she was carrying Cyborg who had in his hand a waxing towel and a bottle of car wax. Starfire tossed away the other antenna and put Cyborg down next to Robin.
"Now, friend Cyborg just stand very still." Starfire said. Cyborg's brows furrowed as he looked at the alien girl he was sure had lost her flipping mind.
"Maybe if we had the century you know like the station on a radio..." Saying nothing more, Starfire flew off to where Haruko sat in the room they'd given him.
"What century is friend Raven in?" She asked suddenly. Haruko looked up at her with a confused experssion plastered on his face.
"I'm looking, I swear!"
"But what century?"
"Uh, five hundred years ago in the feudal era of Japan. That's what I know for now." Starfire nodded and once again took off. She landed next to Robin again.
"Friend Raven is five hundred years back the...feudal era of Japan." Both Robin's and Cyborg's jaws dropped to the ground. "That is what not-friend Haruko said."
"Um, alright." Cyborg punched the numbers into his right arm and waited. He then stood still as Robin opened his communicator and tried again.
"Raven, are you there? Answer me!" He waited a moment but nothing but static. "Raven!" Still nothing. Sighing, Robin looked up at a teary-eyed Starfire.
"Thanks for trying Star but it's...just not good enough." Cyborg said as his head drooped. Robin looked back down at his communicator to see white and black lines suddenly appearing at intervals between the static. All of a sudden, a flash of Raven's face appeared.
"Ro...n?" Came the static riddled reply.
"Freind Raven!" Starfire screamed and burst into tears.
"I c...t ...ar you." She said. Starfire wiped away her tears and snatched the communicator from Robin's hands. She lifted the device up toward the sky and cried out Raven's name again. Beast Boy suddenly ran onto the roof.
"I heard screaming!" He said while his chest was heaving, probably from the run.
"We found her." Robin said with a smile as tears rolled down his face. Beast Boy's eyes widened in joy-filled shock.
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A/N: Yes, a teary reunion. I personally like this chapter. It shows the relationship forming roughly between two somebodies and shows the care and devotion of Raven's teammates. Don't worry, you'll get to see it from Raven's perspective next but it seemed more intense coming from the Titan's view first. Oh, the whole Cyborg as an antenna thing wasn't a last minute idea. I thought of it a day or so ago but decided to use it at the last minute. I think how it turned out was adorable but that's just me. Anyway, thanks for reading and hope you review to tell me what you think. If Sesshi's a bit out of character, I appologize. He's going to be way out of character later but all of that and its answers come it time.