Chapter six: Quarrels.

The nice thing about being suddenly granted a lease of life, Miroku quickly realised, was that people around him were a lot quicker to give him his way. To tell the truth, Miroku was feeling rather like a balloon with its strings cut – floaty and high. It was six days now since they'd arrived, and the feeling hadn't receded. There was the fear that the wind tunnel would come back, of course there was, and it was a deep fear, but compared to the certain death he had faced all his life, it was a minor thing. If there was one thing Miroku knew, it was how to control fear. This was trivial.

No, what was really bothering him was Starfire.

Miroku was a remarkably confident man, with few illusions about himself or the rest of the world. This inner clarity had allowed him to befriend men – and women – who were stronger or weaker, smarter or stupider, older or younger than he was without feeling remotely threatened by them. Sango, for one. The unapproachable taijiya could thrash him one-handed any day of the week; he'd never known men to be really interested in her romantically for that very reason, but the fact that she could kick him from Jump City to Tokyo and all along the Great Wall didn't bother him much when he talked to her. Kaede, whose miko powers rivaled his own; Kagome, who outstripped him in power even if she was exasperatingly bubble-headed and chirpily weird at times – he could accept that certain people were better than he was at certain things and that that didn't mean that he was of lesser worth.

Unfortunately, this inner clarity and maturity didn't extend as far as actually keeping his relationships free of his trademark pervertedness. It was his curse, though it had nothing to do with his hand, and compared to the women of Feudal Japan, Starfire showed a lot of skin. Just one look at those legs in that little purple skirt was enough to make his eyes cross. While Raven's outfit technically revealed more, he had a feeling that she would turn him inside out and jump on the remains if he even thought about touching her; his normally wandering eye somehow remained firmly fixed above her neck where Raven was concerned, and his normally wandering hand a secure half-foot from her. And as for touching Starfire……..hah. As if.

The first time he'd tried, Sango had nearly knocked his brains out of his head with Hiraikotsu, and after that, whenever he found Starfire alone, he was joined smoothly and immediately by either Robin or Sango, who both seemed to trust him exactly the same, which was not at all. It was deeply frustrating. It wasn't as if he had ever forced himself on anyone in the least, but the way they acted……

What was even more frustrating was that Starfire didn't notice. Flattery went over her head, grand romantic gestures were impossible in company and asking her to bear his child had been an absolute fiasco. It wasn't so much that he actually wanted her to bear his child or even marry him; he was just deadly curious about her and she did look good and she had kissed him, hadn't she, so she had to be interested, right?

He had questioned Robin about the customs of the land with regard to romance. After the apoplectic fit, Robin explained shakily that he didn't have much of a social life, and asked why.

Miroku replied that he would like to date Starfire, as she was of marriageable age and therefore ready to explore relationships.

After choking some more over the marriageable part (despite Starfire's brief disastrous betrothal, Robin retained his original, good old 21st century ideas of marriage) he asked him how he knew about dating.

Miroku replied that Kagome was an excellent source of information about the future.

At this point, the conversation deteriorated rapidly.

'Oh yeah? The only woman for you, I suppose you'll call her next?'

'Actually….' Miroku began.

'You're such a pervert,' Robin said, restraining his language admirably. 'You proposed to a eleven-year-old once. You kissed a youkai. You made out with a woman in every other village you went to; you even asked Kagome and Sango to bear your child. You touch the behinds of random women and you ask anything in a skirt to bear your child. And now you're going for Starfire? Like hell.'

'How did you…….' Miroku said weakly.

'Oh, I know a lot more than I tell,' Robin said icily. 'Sango told me all about you. And if you do anything…….you hear, anything, to that girl, I'll have you in cuffs so fast you won't even know until the judge says "Twenty years", you get it?'

In retrospect, Miroku decided that Robin was probably the wrong one to ask, and he should have gone to Cyborg instead. Ah, the eagle eye of hindsight………….

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When Robin told Sango about the conversation he'd had with Miroku, she had mixed reactions.

She liked Miroku. He was strong, smart, charming and when he wasn't being offensively romantic, he had an easy wit that balanced her serious outlook well. He was one of the four people – if Kirara was counted as a person – who knew her well, and she trusted him with her life.

Sure, she'd crushed on him at first. But it had settled into something deeper, calmer, closer to recognition of some nameless bond. She was also quite sure that if she and Miroku married, she'd kill him within the year. She wasn't sure what Miroku actually thought of Starfire, but that something perverted was involved in it, she didn't doubt for a moment. Besides, why get interested when they would soon have to lea– Oh. Oh, right. The wind tunnel. If he went back, it might open again. So he was probably staying back, then. The thought pulled oddly at her. It was so natural to think of Miroku and the wind tunnel in the same breath, to assume that the six of them would travel together forever – except that Shippou and Kirara weren't here either. She was doing a lot of that forgetting thing, it seemed. It was just that life here – in the future, in the Tower – was addictive. They spent the days in Jump City or its nearby woods or just relaxing in the tower, reading, playing those video games with Beast Boy, watching TV, and in her case, training with Robin. That was very enjoyable.

For some reason, she found herself with Robin most of the time; maybe it was because they both enjoyed physical combat in a way none of the others did, except Inuyasha. That strange sense of recognition had persisted as the days went by. On the rare occasions when Sango was truly drawn to someone – as she had been to Kagome, Miroku, Kirara, even that baka Inuyasha – she never resisted the pull, and she rarely regretted it. And Robin was eerily like her. They had the same concentration on their job, the same………. actually, the same everything. From Starfire's stories, Robin was even more socially inept than Sango was. Learning from him was quite easy. She was as driven as he was, and expected as much from herself as he did.

Sango also developed a surprising friendship with Beast Boy. The shapechanger was fascinated by her stories of demons and their abilities, and spent hours listening to them. The first time she allowed him to touch Hiraikotsu, he'd immediately transformed into a wolf and smelled it all over before correctly identifying the last ten people who'd touched it by her description of their age and gender. Sango, amused, allowed him to keep it for a while. He became something of a demon expert in a week; as Robin remarked, if she could keep him away from the TV he might actually grow a brain with time.

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The next morning, the Event that they had all been dreading since their arrival at the Tower finally occurred. It began rather innocently, when Inuyasha wandered into the living room to find some potato chips. He was temporarily unsupervised, since Kagome had discovered that Starfire's room had a HUGE jacuzzi and promptly disappeared after picking up candles, a fluffy pink robe that belonged to Starfire and a romance novel stolen from Cyborg's room (and, man, what was up with that?). That was an hour and a half ago, and he was tired of waiting. (Maybe she'd died in there or something. She did have an unnatural attraction to baths. Maybe she had a water-youkai ancestor? ) His backup babysitter, Miroku, was curled up on the couch, snoring gently. Feeling uncharacteristically cheerful now that he was unattended, Inuyasha ruffled through the shelf in the kitchen, tossing aside the packets he didn't want. Just as he saw the garlic-flavoured chips on the top of the shelf, a longer arm that belonged to a taller youkai snatched it neatly away.

'Yo, stripy. Give that back,' Inuyasha demanded, turning around only to nearly bump into a white-clad chest. His brother smirked down at him.

'No chance, shorty.'

'I saw it first, flagpole!'

'Flagpole?' Sesshoumaru said, taken aback.

'Tall, thin, lots of ribbony things, very very girly,' Inuyasha explained in that slow careful tone used with idiots and telephone operators.

The smirk straightened immediately. Sesshoumaru hated being called a girl, and Inuyasha knew it.

'Take that back, shit-for-brains,' he snarled, stepping back and placing a hand on Toukijin's hilt. 'Or I'll take you apart.'

It was Inuyasha's turn to grin as he snatched the suddenly forgotten chips from the counter. He turned and fled with the spoils before his startled brother could react. 'Nyah-nyah-nyah! Gotcha, sister!' lingered in the air behind him.

By the time Sesshoumaru caught him, Inuyasha had already eaten the chips, stuffing them untidily into his mouth as he ran. As the youkai quivered with barely suppressed violence, he deliberately held out the very last piece of garlic-flavoured addiction and shoved it into his mouth.

A second later –

Titans' Tower shuddered to its foundations as the hanyou was punched through a triple-reinforced steel wall……. and into the bathroom where Kagome lay, nose buried in the romance novel. She squealed and ducked under the mountain of bubbles as the brothers gaped at her. Inuyasha was barely a foot away, horrified and…….oh, sweet heaven, was he ogling her? They stared at each other for several seconds, both rather stunned and turning rapidly crimson. Kagome regained her wits first.

'Stop looking at me! Kyaaaa!' she shrieked, tugging the robe over the tub. Inuyasha scrambled backwards into the wall's remains, and his brother had the grace to look away, embarrassed. Kagome wrapped herself up in the sopping wet robe and emerged from the tub like Nemesis herself. Inuyasha was already well out of sit-shot. Sesshoumaru prudently transformed into a ball of light and left before the enraged miko could turn on him.

'Friend Kagome?' said Starfire as she peeped in at the door. 'Are you all right?'

'I'm going to kill them,' Kagome swore as she pulled on her pants with a vicious yank. 'I swear I'm going to kill them both.'

Starfire, who wasn't clueless enough to ignore that, withdrew immediately.

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They met again outside the Tower. As Inuyasha ran for the relative safety of Jump City, his escape was cut off by a streak of white light that solidified into a furious (and chipless) taiyoukai.

The others arrived to see them both locked in battle, swords sparking with youki as they connected. As Kagome arrived, her hair still dripping, carrying her bow, Miroku nudged Sango and pointed discreetly. The taijiya took one look at the girl and began to grin, her eyebrows climbing. 'Oh, wow, this should be good…….'

'Go to hell, ugly!' Inuyasha screamed as Tetsusaiga held off another of Toukijin's strikes. The brothers locked gazes over their blades, Sesshoumaru suspended in midair as he forced his sword closer to Inuyasha.

Kagome snarled wordlessly (and much more impressively than Inuyasha) as she advanced towards them. 'You childish, immature, crabby, peevish IDIOTS!' she shrieked on a steadily rising inflection. They turned to stare at her. 'Put those swords away right now or I swear I'll purify the two of you!' An arrow, already drawn, trembled eagerly at the tip of her bow. 'Inuyasha, SIT BOY!'

Inuyasha crashed to the ground, his fang returning to the shabby, rusty form it normally had, nearly impaling him in the process. Sesshoumaru inched away from his brother, eyeing the arrow and the miko holding it with mild apprehension. From a few feet away, she was hardly likely to miss……..and if she hit him this time, she'd take out more than his armour.

'Apologise,' Kagome gritted. The air about her was filled with static as her aura extended around her. They both gulped.

'Miko, I– '

'Not to me, Sesshoumaru; not you. To Raven. You broke a promise.'

Sesshoumaru turned to Raven, eyes blank as ever. The empath struggled to hold in her giggles and maintained an even expression, though several bulbs in the Tower were later found to be inexplicably shattered. 'I apologise,' he said curtly before making his exit.

'And as for YOU!' Kagome said, turning to face Inuyasha, who was still making friends with the ground. 'What were you thinking, ogling me in the bathtub? Haven't you any shame?'

'And to think you only had to wait a week until you could go back to Sengoku Jidai and ogle them at the hot springs like we always do,' Miroku mourned with a malicious glint in his eyes. 'Inuyasha, Inuyasha, have you no patience?'

'Die, monk!'

'SIT!'

'Gaah!'

And Kagome marched away, full of righteous indignation to rival Starfire, her arrow returned to its quiver, leaving a smoking crater with a hanyou inside in her wake. She was stopped by Beast Boy, who smiled tentatively at her.

'Aah, Kagome………..'

She looked at him, waiting.

'Teach me how to do that and I'll love you forever. I mean, that rocked!'

Kagome smiled, performing one of her infamous U-turns. 'Yeah, that was fun, wasn't it?'

'She's scary when she's angry,' Robin murmured.

'Yeeeahh,' said Miroku with feeling.

Chapter seven: Change.

Beast Boy had mixed feelings about the group that was staying with them over at the Tower. They were definitely the weirdest guests they'd had…….even Titans East was normal compared to this lot. He liked Kagome, Miroku and Sango, but he wasn't quite sure what to make of Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru was really weird.

Beast Boy had a good idea of weird. A small green boy who could turn into animals was not considered normal in most social circles. But honestly, the youkai was really barking mad……yeah, right, dog demon. Raven assured him that most high-level youkai had true forms and human forms, which led him to speculate what the Big Dog would be like. He'd already seen Raven's true form, and it was beyond creepy.

Which led him to wonder: if youkai had genuinely animal forms, would it be possible to assimilate a few of them? Sure, most of the animals he could copy were animals whose DNA he'd been injected with by his parents a long time ago, but surely he could add on to them? And Beast Boy still had their journals. Not to mention everything he'd learnt from them, buried somewhere deep in his head, where he'd pushed everything that had to do with his transformation.

Oh, yeah, he had a lot of studying to do……..

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Robin was truly puzzled. This was probably because he had more free time now. The HIVE was quiet, Slade was on vacation (he'd left a bouquet and a note on the door of the Tower, something he always did to announce his arrival or departure. All Robin could say about that was that Slade was crazy) and aside from their guests there was very little to actually do. So when he noticed that the perpetual bzz-crackle-voice of the TV was silent for much longer than usual, he went investigating. Beast Boy was nowhere to be found. In fact, nobody had seen him for two days. There were also a large number of missing plates and tofu, by which Robin assumed that he had taken food with him. When he went to Beast Boy's room, all he got was an absent-minded 'Go away,' from the other side of the green door. 'Are you all right in there?' he shouted, wondering if the grass stain was obsessing over Terra again.

'Fine, fine,' said Beast Boy testily. 'Now go away. I'm wo–' and he cut himself off, leaving Robin wondering just what he was doing. He couldn't have been saying 'working', could he? Or 'worrying'? His detective instincts fully roused, Robin activated the security cameras in the room. All they revealed was Beast Boy lying on his bed, with a steadily decreasing plate of fries and tofu, dipping and chewing while reading a book. Reading a book! But the camera wouldn't zoom in far enough to show him the words. It seemed to be some sort of official notebook. Beast Boy was looking uncharacteristically sober, almost…..serious? Before their run-in with the Doom Patrol, Robin would have called Beast Boy incapable of seriousness, but he was more inclined now to give the shapechanger the benefit of the doubt.

As Robin watched, bemused, Beast Boy picked up a notebook and scribbled in it for a few seconds. Then he leapt up and jumped on the bed, sending the last three fries flying. A tinny 'whoooo-yaaahh!' came through the camera.

'I rule I rule I rule!' Beast Boy chanted, turning elaborate somersaults. Then he ran to the door and yanked it open, racing outside. Robin hastily turned the camera off and went to meet him.

This really was the end of the world as he knew it.

He found Beast Boy in Cyborg's room, chattering excitedly at Cyborg, words spilling out of him faster than they ever had. Cyborg was nodding bemusedly, looking rather lost.

'What's going on?' Robin said finally. Beast Boy noticed his presence and promptly shooed him out of the door, feet dragging on the floor, absolutely red in the face with breathlessness and embarrassment.

Dumped unceremoniously outside the room, Robin ran a frustrated hand through his spikes. The mystery was getting to him. Really.

Three punching bags in the Tower's training room broke that evening.

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Beast Boy approached Sesshoumaru cautiously that evening during dinner. The youkai was eating potato chips and chocolate, which he had taken a liking to, for dinner, polishing off a pile of the snacks with profound indifference among the others, who were staring sideways at him over their macaroni. An odd combination of foods, but Beast Boy was nobody to talk.

The youkai looked up at him curiously when he sidled closer. It was really unfortunate, Beast Boy mused, that Sesshoumaru was completely devoid of any sense of humour. So he'd said 'Woof you like some', or 'Howl are you today?', or asked him whether he liked wearing striped suits. Or the other jokes, for that matter, the ones that had to do with frisbees, being fetch-ing, etc. Being funny wasn't a crime, was it? Oh, well. So he hadn't got that memo.

'Eheheh,' he chuckled nervously. Sesshoumaru put his Extra Crunchy Double-Chocolate Wafer Triple-Decker (which he refused to crunch, as it undermined his dignity) down and stared at the shapechanger, who seemed to be coughing madly. He raised an eyebrow in favour of speaking, since the marshmallows had glued his fang to his lip in a sweet web. What was he going to need to get rid of those things, his poison?

'I was wondering if I could take a blood sample of yours?' he whispered. This made Sesshoumaru choke as the Extra Crunchy Double-Chocolate Wafer Triple-Decker suddenly shot up his nostrils and down his trachea…….everywhere, in fact, except where it was supposed to go. Had he just been asked for blood!

Inuyasha sniggered as the ice-cool taiyoukai suddenly turned into what sounded like an old engine starting up. The affronted look Sesshoumaru sent his way did nothing to stop the bratty laugh. 'Inuyashaaa……' Kagome said, in that particular saccharine tone of voice she used just before she sat him with a vengeance, and he shut up immediately.

'It's for research,' Beast Boy explained hastily. He liked his guts exactly where they were, thank you very much. 'Youkai DNA. I can transform, you know.'

The other eyebrow went up. Beast Boy stuttered for a moment as the full glare of the Lord of the Western Lands was turned on him.

'Trafns……tnfar…..transform into other animals, that is. I was hoping your blood would

help me with some ideas I have about youkai transformation and their DNA.'

Robin, who didn't know that words like research and DNA and transformation existed in Beast Boy's vocabulary, whistled in appreciation. The other Titans shot him glares of varying intensity.

Sesshoumaru considered this. Then he considered some more. He chewed meditatively on salsa-flavoured potato chips while Beast Boy grew increasingly nervous. 'Hn,' he said finally. 'I will oblige you.'

Sesshoumaru stopped paying attention to the little green one as he stuttered out his thanks. He would never have given any of his blood to anyone in the past, but this Beast Boy was no spellcaster. Besides, chocolate made it hard to think.

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It was completely Kagome's fault, the youkai mused bitterly, his pointed ears twitching with irritation. His current benevolence, his attitude, his calmness, his lack of bloodlust. All the fault of that thrice-damned time-travelling miko. And that pesky Rin. And the chocolate.

During one of his numerous battles with Inuyasha, he had smelt a most curious smell from the strange underdressed girl's giant bag. He had wondered what it was at the time, but dismissed it because of a little distraction like not having his other arm cut off. Later, that strange enticing smell had haunted him like nothing ever had. He found himself trailing behind that fool half-brother of his when he had nothing else to do, expending a tremendous amount of energy to mask his scent, trying to catch a whiff of that delicious scent. He discovered the secret of the Bone Gobbling Well quickly, but the origin of the miko was of little interest to him and he never pursued the matter further.

His obsession would have continued forever, since he didn't want to stoop to thievery to discover what it was he was smelling; except that after a battle Rin came to him smelling of that smell; apparently she had made friends with the little kitsune. It was so overwhelmingly strong, so suffocatingly blissful. He could barely keep from grabbing the package when she brought it out – a strangely wrapped rectangular thing. She peeled one open and stuffed a bit in her mouth before deciding that she didn't like it. Displaying great restraint, he reached over slowly and took it from her unresisting fingers…………

And the rest, after a visit to an illusion-demon that created a substance that tasted exactly like the strange bittersweet food, was history.

In fact, the first thing he had thought once his body was returned to his soul in the future was: hmm, I wonder if they have any chocolate here. A random thought, no doubt, but he had been rather shocked at the time. And then he discovered potato chips……and fries….. he really did owe Jinx one……….

The trouble was that chocolate changed his personality drastically. He just couldn't summon up the old gung-ho let's-kill-them-for-looking-at-me-sideways attitude. It had melted away with the special dark almond and pistachio tranquilliser. And the worst part was, he couldn't bring himself to care. He told himself that he'd eat chocolate on special occasions………and didn't tolerating his moron of a brother deserve a few treats?

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Inuyasha reached for the fries in the centre of the table, still focused on the macaroni ……and encountered something that felt distinctly un-fry-like. He looked at the fries, and then snatched his hand back from Sesshoumaru's wrist, disgusted. The youkai was looking ready to kill him.

'You promised,' Raven said quietly at the same time Kagome turned the creepy 'sit in 5-4-3-2-OSUWARI!' smile on him again. It was funny how they had such perfect instincts when it came to keeping the inu brothers apart.

Sesshoumaru subsided and bit savagely into one of the biscuits, wishing it was his baka brother's head. He wished he hadn't promised to keep his claws off the idiot at least sixteen times every minute he was around Inuyasha. But he had, and that was that.

Sesshoumaru didn't go so far as to speak, of course; he rarely spoke around that brother of his and his group.

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In the evening, Sesshoumaru usually went up to the roof or floated off the island to the woods near Jump City. He was unused to spending much time in the company of others, and Titans' Tower was full to spilling over right now. He left Rin alone more now, since she seemed to be quite happy to spend time with Cyborg or Beast Boy, whose antics seemed to amuse her.

When he reached the roof, however, he found almost the last person he would have expected waiting for him.

'Sesshoumaru,' Kagome said gravely. Acknowledging him as an equal. The girl had changed from the helpless and hyperactively happy child she had been when he first noticed her in his father's tomb. There was palpable power around her now, and a quiet confidence and self-worth that shone through when the girl allowed it to. Grudgingly, he had to accept that she had every right to address him as an equal after the numerous times she had helped defeat him.

'Miko,' he said in reply. 'You wish to talk to me?'

'Yes. About Rin. And Inuyasha.'

Sesshoumaru stiffened. Those were, in order, the two topics he wished least to discuss with anyone. Then again, he was curious to know what she wanted to know about them. She had surprised him a few times in the past, and he was not easy to surprise.

Sesshoumaru was perhaps more driven by curiosity than he cared to admit. Saving Rin, seeking Tetsusaiga, being Naraku's ally and then his sworn enemy, every major change in his life had begun with casual curiosity. For someone with as much power and as little responsibility as he had, it was the only way to counter the boredom of life. And something in him told him to answer, and as always, he obeyed his instincts.

'Did you ever really want to kill Inuyasha?'

Direct hit. Sesshoumaru winced. He knew she knew. He had given himself away a hundred times. 'Did I want to kill him? Of course I did. I still do.'

'But you wouldn't. You had plenty of opportunity, I know you did.'

'You are right, miko,' he said without feeling.

'I know that. What I want to know is: why?'

The word escaped without his quite intending to, slipping out on the exhale. 'Father.'

Kagome looked startled by that. Thoughtfully, she put her hand under her chin. 'Of course. He forbade you from killing Inuyasha, didn't he?'

'He was in no position to forbid me anything by the time that human toy of his had given birth to his son,' Sesshoumaru corrected her. 'We had…….disagreements……..we drifted apart…….by the time Izayoi became his mate, we met only rarely. It is not unusual in youkai families. However, with certain types of youkai, some emotions are rooted very strongly. In the lesser youkai, it is violence, hate, anger. In others, it is honour, power, pride, love, ambition, desire, a need to control, artistry. It depends on the type of youkai. Those base emotions……are almost impossible to change. ' Sesshoumaru hesitated. He sniffed the air cautiously. They were alone. 'With the inuyoukai, the simplest emotion is loyalty. The pack comes before everything.'

He saw the dawning in her eyes. She understood, then. About both of them.

'My blood – my power, that which makes me more than human – it acknowledges Inuyasha as pack. I can no more change it than I can breathe underwater. The effect is somewhat less because I hate him, and that emotion counteracts the pack-feel. If he died because of something unrelated to me, away from my presence, I would not feel compelled to intervene or avenge him.'

'But if he did………so that's why you came when he began to transform without Tetsusaiga. To see if your blood no longer accepted him. Only it did, even if he was mindless, and that was why you left again.'

He nodded. Turned away. What he had told her, nobody else knew. In fact, he wasn't sure why he'd told her.

Unfortunately, his blood immediately told him why.

'Inuyasha,' he mused. 'You love him, don't you.'

Kagome turned a brilliant shade of red, her cheeks matching his stripes. Still, she didn't flinch, returning the honesty he had shown her. 'Yes. Yes, I do.'

'And he loves you.' The red grew deeper. He idly wondered if it was actually possible for a human to explode with embarrassment. If it was, she was close.

'Ah……well……he didn't say……urk…'

'In that sense, you are already pack,' he continued. 'Should he strengthen the bond between you with a formal ceremony that would place you in my pack and under my protection. In a very real way, you are my…… what you would call family. Do you understand…….Kagome?' He looked away, at the stars twinkling above him. The wind caressed his hair gently, and he tilted his head back to let it reach his throat better. She was gazing at him with a sort of numb shock.

Well, there was no point in thinking about it. He had openly acknowledged that she was pack, and that was a commitment in itself. To her and his fool brother both. Whether she understood the implications or not was immaterial. And the first attribute of pack was honesty. The second was……..

'Sesshoumaru.' He looked back down at her. 'Thank you.'

She was such a tiny thing, really. It was a miracle she'd survived so long in Sengoku Jidai. She would be dead now if Inuyasha hadn't protected her. He'd protected her before he even knew her. Sesshoumaru snorted mentally. Maybe his brother wasn't as ignorant of the inuyoukai instincts as he'd first thought if he could defend his little group so well.

He nodded in response to her thanks. To his surprise, she stuck out a hand and said brightly, 'So. Friends, then?'

He stared at the hand as he would at a strange and possibly poisonous insect. That little hand – taking it would signify too many changes in his life. But he'd fought so long and so fiercely against his instincts, and had succumbed again in Rin. And that had been worth it. Maybe this would be worth it too. Slowly, he reached out and took it, taking care not to dig his claws into her hand. His brother had chosen well.

'I still hate Inuyasha,' he said as he dropped her hand.

'Of course.'

'I might not kill him, but I'll still take him apart every chance I get.'

'Mm-hm. And I'll be right there beside him, fighting you.'

'And if you get in the way I won't guarantee your safety either.'

'I didn't expect you to.'

'As long as you understand that.' Why did he feel he was making excuses?

'It's crystal.' And Kagome looked as if she did understand. 'I have friends who can't get along, you know,' she said cheerfully, a chuckle escaping her as she thought of Inuyasha and Kouga. 'It's not really too difficult to handle.' She thought for a long moment. 'He doesn't really hate you, you know.'

Sesshoumaru simply looked at her, waiting. If there was one thing he could rely on, it was the miko's love of chatter. It was safe to assume that she'd talk continuously all through her life and probably after her death as well.

'I think he's just bitter and angry that you never accepted him. It's just like with Kikyou.' A shadow passed over her face. 'I don't know if he still loves her or not, but he doesn't hate her. It's not easy for him to truly hate, despite appearances.'

She waited for a response. He gave none. 'If…you were to…….'

'Rest assured, miko, that I have excellent reasons to be Inuyasha's enemy.' His voice was far below freezing again. 'His feelings on this matter are irrelevant.'

And before she could even think of asking him why, he transformed into his energy form and zipped off the roof of the tower.

Kagome sighed. And I thought Inuyasha was stubborn………

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When she went downstairs, Robin was there, waiting.

'Where's-'

'He's on the beach,' the Boy Wonder interrupted.

'Wh–'

'After he saw you with Sesshoumaru on the roof.'

'You really have to stop doing that,' she said. 'It's a little scary.'

'Sorry.'

She thought for a moment. 'Is he sulking?'

'If his version of sulking is scratching his head, pouting, crossing his arms and "keh"ing every other second, yes he is.'

'Ah. I'll go talk to him.'

Inuyasha was sitting on a rock in the twilight, his eyes resolutely turned away even though his ears flicked towards her quick footsteps.

'Hey Inuyasha,' she said tentatively. There was no response. So this was going to be one of those nights.

'If this is about Sesshoumaru–'

'Of COURSE it's about him!' Inuyasha burst out, getting in her face. 'Kagome, he tried to kill me over a sword! He's a vicious killer, have you forgotten that!'

'Inuyasha, are you…….' sigh. There was simply no delicate way to say this. 'If you're actually jealous of Sesshoumaru, you don't have to be.'

He began to sputter indignantly, too furious for words. Before he could gather himself enough to begin bawling her out, Kagome held up a hand, forestalling him.

'I said, you don't have to be. I just wanted to ask him something, that's all, and then he left. There is absolutely – absolutely,' she stressed, 'nothing like that, okay.'

'What did you want to talk about?' Inuyasha asked, suspicious.

'Oh……..just……..things,' Kagome said, turning crimson immediately.

'Yeah? What things?' he sounded angry. Could he have sensed her blush?

'Just…..about……'

'WHAT THINGS, WENCH!'

'He gave us his blessing,' Kagome replied, quailing before his roar. Then she realised what she'd said and her eyes went very wide and her face even redder. 'I can't believe you forced that out of me!'

Inuyasha's mouth opened and closed exactly like a fish before he whirled away from her, staring blindly out at the gentle sea. She stared at the ground, wondering if it really would swallow her up if she wanted it bad enough.

'…blessing?' Inuyasha whispered finally. It was a tone she had never heard from him before, and it made Kagome look up, startled, at his back. 'He….damn……damn.'

'Inuyasha, if you try to pick a fight with him…….'

'Pick a fight?' That strange tone hadn't faded, and there was an odd light in his bright golden eyes. 'No, no, I won't pick any fights.'

And before she could begin to fathom the expression on his face as he turned around, he sat down weakly on the rock and covered his eyes. It was so staggeringly unlike him that she knelt before him, truly alarmed. Pried his hands away to reveal the oddest mix of emotions; fear, hope, anger, wonder, disbelief, dawning realisation.

'Wait a minute. Why would he think we….'

Kagome blushed even harder. But now that she'd embarrassed herself this far, it wasn't impossibly hard to look up into his eyes and tell him.

He grabbed her into a hug. It was as awkward as ever, because he didn't really know where to put his arms when he hugged anyone because he'd been hugged so little himself and it was a little too tight and she was running out of breath rapidly and her head was swimming with the seesawing emotions of the last twenty minutes, but Kagome didn't mind at all.

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Upstairs in Titans' Tower, the communications room burst into cheers and applause. Sango and Miroku were holding each others' forearms and jumping up and down in sheer glee, and Starfire was clapping madly, almost up to the ceiling with bubbling joy. Cyborg was wolf-whistling, grinning broadly. Robin was smiling. Only Raven looked as blank as ever. She got up and went to the door, muttering 'Infantile,' under her breath. Once she was out of the damage zone, she threw her head back and laughed heartily, pulling most of the wiring in the corridor out in a flare of energy.

'Well, that's a relief,' Sango beamed. 'They're so dense, I thought they'd take forever.'

'Ooh, look, they're KISS-sing,' said Beast Boy, who had endured one of Cyborg's elated back-thumps. The first one he had delivered with his non-human arm had knocked most of the breath and all the laughter out of him, but he was smiling now, if weakly. Everyone crowded around the screen, and the noise level went up dramatically.

'I must say, Robin,' Miroku commented as he stared, 'This was a much better idea than spying on them behind bushes. They don't blush and jump away from each other, and you get to be as noisy as you want.'

A smirk tugged at the Titan's lips. 'Learn from the masters, Miroku.' There was a chorus of disappointed 'Awww's as the necking ended and they settled down, and Robin reached over and tapped a few buttons. 'And here's the best part. The rewind and record option.'

Miroku grinned evilly. 'Can I have one of those when I leave?'

And Robin mirrored him.

Chapter eight: Past and Present.

'Oi, monk,' Inuyasha said, plonking down next to Miroku, who was stretched out on the sofa reading a book. Unlike Rin and Sango, who had both taken to modern clothing very quickly, Miroku and Inuyasha still wore their Sengoku Jidai outfits.

Miroku looked up and sighed. Inuyasha was sporting the irritable pout that he favoured when he was about to broach a topic he was uncomfortable with. His ears were twitching, he was picking at his scalp with one claw and if he had been the type he would have paced.

'Yes, Inuyasha?'

'Are you coming back with us or not?' he blurted outright.

He wasn't sure, that was the truth. On the one hand, there was his life to consider, and the future seemed like a good place for a guy with a brain. On the other, there was Naraku, possible vengeance and his friends. It was a hellish choice, and nine days after being faced with it, Miroku was no closer to the answer.

'I……don't know, Inuyasha,' he said, folding the book away and sitting up next to the fidgety hanyou. 'I honestly don't know. There's no guarantee I'll live to see Naraku dead, after all. He could have died years after the wind tunnel ripped.' After all, that wouldn't take too long, he added to himself. 'But everything I know is in the past. Is it worth the gamble? What if I were essential to killing Naraku, and remaining in the future helped him survive somehow? I don't know what to do, and it's ripping me apart. I'm hoping that if I keep from choosing long enough, someone else might make it for me.'

'Yeah, well.' Inuyasha looked even more uncomfortable. 'I-if you want to stay behind…….I'll understand.'

'No you wouldn't,' Miroku countered. 'It wouldn't even occur to you to run from a fight. I'm not that strong – physically or mentally.'

'I haven't lived for years with a death curse on me either,' Inuyasha remarked. 'Maybe you're right, maybe I wouldn't stay here. But right for me isn't right for you. I don't think it's running away.'

Which was rather unusually understanding of the hanyou. Unexpectedly, horridly, Miroku felt his eyes begin to tear up. They'd done that at odd intervals the last week, and while he'd been able to keep the worst episodes hidden, there was no way Inuyasha would miss the scent of salt at this distance.

'You're a guy, don't cry,' Inuyasha said gruffly. 'Damn, you're such a wimp.'

That stopped the tears immediately.

'At least I'm not a jealous moron who can't even tell when a girl's got feelings for him.'

Clunk! Instant bruise. Miroku rubbed his head while Inuyasha's veins popped. But the remark had done the trick. Suddenly their friendship was back to normal.

'You're so understanding, Inuyasha,' Miroku said, sweetly. Too sweetly. Inuyasha shot him a suspicious look. 'That's what makes everybody around you love you, you know. Your understanding and caring nature.'

Inuyasha twitched. There was nothing he hated more than being complimented and Miroku knew it.

'You're so generous,' he added, his silky voice purring the way it did when he was saying something particularly outrageous. 'And kind.'

'Stop it,' Inuyasha growled ominously, ears flicking wildly; Miroku grinned evilly.

'A brave and reliable friend– '

'Who's going to bash your face in right now.' His eyes were disappearing into the shadow of his bangs. Which was usually when Miroku gave up. His masochistic streak was restricted to humans. Inuyasha hit rather hard when he was really mad. Leaning back against the sofa's plush cushions, he sighed in comfort and changed the topic.

'So, did you find out what happened with Beast Boy and the blood sample?'

'Yeah. I was actually there; he'd wanted some from me too.' Inuyasha's eyes crinkled in amusement. 'The runt couldn't actually cut that jerk's skin with the needle, so Sesshoumaru just made his hands do the glowy thing and sliced his wrist apart himself and bled into the sample. I thought BB was going to be sick. The runt called Cy to give him medical treatment. He shot him one of those Looks and showed him his wrist, and obviously it was already healed. I really thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head then.'

'He's really quite strange.'

'Not as strange as Starfire.'

Oh, yes, Miroku thought. Not half as strange as the alien. Her kiss had been stunning – not as stunning as her starbolts, he thought wryly, but memorable nonetheless. The first girl who kissed him the moment she met him, and all she wanted was his Japanese. He really was losing his touch. If he'd ever had it.

'So you like her, huh. Well, it's no big deal. You'll foul up, she'll slap you, end of story.'

'Oi!' Miroku said indignantly.

'That's what's happened every time before. For a lech, you really have a lot of woman problems.'

'I'll ask her out just as soon as you tell us what happened out on that rock last night.'

Inuyasha glared. Silence fell. Miroku picked up his book again. A while later, Inuyasha kicked his foot by way of starting the conversation again. 'Beast Boy. What's he want the samples for, anyway?'

'Beasts me,' said Miroku and continued to read.

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'Friday night Friday night! Hey Rae! Come on out!' Beast Boy sang as he pounded cheerfully on her heavy door. He wouldn't have dared to do that a few years ago, but Raven had changed a lot in the years since she had vanquished Trigon.

Inside her room, Raven groaned. 'Oh, please, grow up.'

BB grinned, falling back into the familiar routine. 'Rae, come on,' he whined. 'Stankball isn't stankball without you. Think of all the dirty laundry! What would it do without your arraesting presence? You're breaking its heart. Any moment now, it's going to write its suicide note and call the guy who runs the laundromat…….'

'Let it,' she said heartlessly.

'What a nasty thing to say! I'm shocked! –don't worry, stankie-baby, she didn't mean it. No she didn't…….no she didn't. Mama loves you, yes she does,' he cooed to the smelly ball of clothing. Despite herself, Raven giggled, then winced as her two-faced statue flew into bits for the nth time. Sighing, she resolved to put it back together later. Stankball Fridays were fun, but they required a lot of repair work afterwards.

'Raven! Raven! O Rae of light, raediant one!'

Raven reflected that Beast Boy was a lot less fun before he discovered the English language. Some of his puns were actually educated now.

'Join the raest of us!'

'Shut up, you fool. I'm coming.' No real heat in her voice. He would have been surprised if there had been. Raven slammed the door open, wearing her oldest and tattiest cloak, her hands, already glowing with magic, wrapped around her laundry.

Cyborg and Beast Boy stood there, each holding a large ball of dirty laundry. Raven shaped them into balls and knotted them with her power. Miroku, Kagome, Rin and Sango were there too, looking morbidly curious and grossed out at the same time. Sango was wearing a pair of overalls with a brown top. As always, she carried Hiraikotsu. Rin was in a cute summer dress. Miroku was still in his houshi robes.

'The rules of the game are very simple,' Beast Boy said, grinning maniacally at the thought of new victims. 'If you get hit with the stankball…….throw. If you see one coming at you……duck. If you can't take the smell…….you lose!'

'So Inuyasha's already lost?' Miroku chuckled.

'Well, he did pass out when Beast Boy brought his wad into the room….' Kagome noted.

'All right,' BB said. 'The game starts in 5….4….3….2….oof!'

Raven plucked his wad of laundry out of his hands and hit him in the face with it. Beast Boy gagged briefly as the laundry wrapped around his sensitive nose before recovering and chucking it at Miroku. He ducked swiftly, and the ball fell into Kagome's hands. She made a curious 'Urk!' sound and threw it back at the grass stain. Meanwhile, Cyborg's wad hit the crouching Miroku full-on, while Raven's wad hit Rin, who swatted it aside to land on Miroku as well. The monk yelped under the sudden barrage of smell, then gathered both of them up and looked at Sango. The taijiya backed away. He threw.

'Hiraikotsu!'

And the stankballs were deflected in all directions. Raven caught one with her powers and threw it around the boomerang. And then the game really started.

Battle raged over the living room, the hallways, the little niches that only Beast Boy knew about, the repair tunnels, the bedrooms (Robin's was sealed tightly, and he and Starfire were both locked up in the med bay with Jinx. It was the only safe place to be, or so they said) and the roof.

Raven chased Cyborg and Kagome up the stairs. They were all giggling madly. Raven had managed to create a barrage of tiny stankballs and they were hitting the miko and the metalman from every direction. Kagome raced up the last flight just as the door to the roof was opened from the other side. Startled, Raven lost her concentration and the balls flew wildly at the intruder, connecting and flying apart to land with a wet thump on the floor. Utter silence fell as Sesshoumaru picked one of Cyborg's rag-cloths off his perfectly immobile face with two fingers, his long white hair falling forward into his face, hiding his features as he examined the missile. Delicately, almost, he held it as his hand glowed brilliantly, radiating poison. The cloth hissed quietly as it disintegrated. A final drop of poison fell from his index finger to the floor, eating through it slowly as he stared at Raven very very evenly. She stared up at him, shocked. For the first time, she smelled disturbed by his expression, his actions, and he wondered why. Finally, Sesshoumaru spoke. No trace of emotion in his voice.

'Never do that again.'

Raven didn't reply. She was staring at his hand, fascinated, lost in some memory. His brow creased ever so faintly as a sound escaped her throat, so low that anyone with less keen ears would have missed it. She turned and ran – no, bolted – down the stairs, phasing as she went. Puzzled, he stared after her.

'Malchior,' Cyborg breathed. 'Shit. Shit. Raven…….' And he ran after her.

'What was that about?' He inquired. Kagome looked just as confused as he felt. She shrugged. 'Hn,' he said and went downstairs, sweeping past the miko as if she didn't exist. He ignored her annoyed huff. He wasn't going to turn nice all of a sudden just because she was near-pack. And if she expected him to, he could rest assured that Inuyasha was rubbing off on her after all.

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When Sesshoumaru got to Raven's room, the door was locked. Very locked. There was even a magical shield on the door, glowering darkly at him, or so it seemed. He snorted quietly; as if that would keep him out! He kicked the door open, surprised at the lack of resistance, and barged into the room…………and promptly choked, doubling over, as the combined stink of every perfume, deodorant, air-freshener, potpourri and incense Raven kept in her room punched him in the nose. She'd……she'd booby-trapped him! Infuriating wench!

'I thought you might try that,' she remarked from the bed through the barrier she had placed around herself. She sounded amused, but her voice quivered slightly, and her eyes were puffy. She really was upset. 'How do you like it in here now?'

Sesshoumaru pinched his nose as his eyes watered and felt for the door with his free hand and staggered out of the room. So that was what she'd been blocking...the smell. As he leaned against the door in an embarrassing display of weakness, he heard her voice call out 'And stay out for two hours!'

He turned the corner and nearly bumped into Beast Boy, who instantly turned a little greener at the smell wafting off him. Before the little shapechanger could move, he shot out a scarlet-striped hand and caught him solidly by the scruff of his hand.

'Tell me,' he said evenly. 'Just who is this……..Melkhiore?'

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It was one o' clock in the morning of the thirteenth day since the Inu gang had come to Jump City, and Higurashi Kagome was having a nightmare. This was not unusual. She had them fairly often. This one, though, didn't hinge on theorem, algebra, astrophysics or other such demons. In fact, it wasn't anything like a nightmare, except that the voice…… calling her name, again and again, desperate, telling her to wake up, wake UP NOW KAGOME…….the voice was her enemy's…..the voice was Naraku's.

Kagome bolted upright, sweating, her hands over her face, nearly screaming, disturbing Sango, who was lying on the other side of the bed. The taijiya looked at her with sleep-blurred eyes. Kagome looked……eerily calm, as if she were too frightened for the rest of her face to register it. But her eyes……

'K...Kagome?' Sango said. Starfire woke up and looked at them both, concerned.

The miko – because that was who she was, the miko – looked at the two girls, that set determined expression never changing. 'Miroku…..' she breathed. Then she was off the bed and out the door before they even realised it, racing for Robin's room.

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Even before he was pulled out of slumber, Miroku knew. The familiar ripping, burning sensation in his palm, his right hand in excruciating pain…………

Snapping to full alert, his mind going from 0 to 120 in less than a second, he turned his palm upwards instinctively before he realised that most of the living quarters were above them. He changed his mind and directed it out the window just as the wind tunnel flared into unlife on his hand again. This time, he could see it happen, and that was infinitely worse than the first time when he'd been waiting, chanting, eyes closed.

With his left hand, Miroku scrabbled for the cloth that he kept by his bedside. Robin was crying out, and Miroku shouted for him to hold on to something; he thought Robin heard, but he wasn't sure. The beads were around his neck, and he thanked his stars for that as he sought them while bracing himself and letting the air rip scream. At least he hadn't killed anyone. A bright flare of pink signaled the raising of a barrier, and suddenly the wind tunnel was easier to control as the rest of the room was blocked out. He finally finally found the cloth and wound the ensorcelled beads around his fingers with the deftness of long practice. The howling wind subsided instantly, and Miroku curled in on himself, on the hard floor where he was now kneeling, his hand tucked safely into himself.

Kagome, Sango, Robin, Starfire, gathered around him.

'Miroku,' Kagome said softly……..what was she doing here, anyway?

'Well,' he said with a desperate attempt at humour, 'I feel hole again. And how did you get here, Kagome-sama?'

Starfire made a curious soft sound like a sob.

If he stayed on the comforting floor another moment, he would shatter. So Miroku stood up, shakily, forcing the bitter fear back and gathering every bit of vicious self-control he'd ever had. They were uncomfortably close to him, and he wanted to push them away, out of range. His left hand stayed clamped across his right.

'So,' he said, and then said nothing, because that was all there was, no thought, no quick connection of ideas; even his agile mind was numbed.

There was a long silence. All three girls looked seconds away from bursting into tears. Robin looked grim, and Miroku was blank as he tried to settle his stomach.

The crackle of the communicator cut it short, and they all started as Cyborg's voice came through. 'Robin?'

'Yeah?' the Titan said, activating the speaker. 'Listen, Cy, something's just–'

'I think you need to get here. Immediately. Raven's already on her way.' Cyborg sounded serious. 'Jinx just opened her eyes.'

'What?' said Robin, already halfway into his uniform.

'That's not all. Robin…….she's…….got those symbols on her.'

Chapter Nine: The Jinx.

Inuyasha was sleeping in Cyborg's room, sitting against the wall as usual, when the smell hit his keen nose. It was unmistakable.

'Naraku……..' he hissed, coming instantly to his feet. He drew the Tetsusaiga and followed the scent. It seemed to be coming from the room with the medicine-smells where that Jinx girl was being kept. He burst into the room, and found……..well, Cyborg and Jinx. Raven and Sesshoumaru came in the other side at about the same time.

Jinx was suspended above the bed as she had been for the last eight days. Her eyes were open now, though, and her mouth moved soundlessly as she stared straight at the ceiling. Glowing symbols in a language Inuyasha didn't recognise covered her, glowing through her skin, illuminating her from within.

'That smell,' Inuyasha said, amber eyes darting all over the room, seeking, his ears twitching. 'Where are you, Naraku!'

'Ignorant fool,' Sesshoumaru said coldly. 'It's the girl who smells like him.'

And she did, he realised. He went up to her and sniffed. She smelled strange…..like what she had before, and like Naraku. And some other scent, an acrid sulfuric stench that he associated with fire and lava. As his nose twitched, he sensed Kagome and the others enter as well.

'Trigon……..?' Sesshoumaru murmured, too softly for anyone else but the sharp-eared hanyou to hear. 'She smells like Trigon. And Raven. She didn't, before.'

'Why the hell would she smell like Raven?' Inuyasha said loudly. Every head in the room swung towards him. Raven looked faintly embarrassed, Cyborg incredulous and Sesshoumaru……..well, he just looked faintly disgusted. 'And who's this Trigon guy?'

'Why would you know what Trigon smells like?' Raven was looking suspicious, and Sesshoumaru looked like a walking "Oops".

'You met him?' she continued, and now he looked really uncomfortable. 'And you didn't tell me you did?'

'And why would you smell like this Trigon guy anyway?' Inuyasha demanded. From what he'd heard, Trigon was the Titans' most powerful enemy.

'They don't know he's your father?' Cyborg said unwisely. Raven glowered at him.

'It's not the sort of thing she advertises, Cy!' Beast Boy glared.

Inuyasha nearly gave himself whiplash when his head swiveled to Raven. 'You're his daughter? I don't get it. How come you're not on his side?'

'Fool. She was the one who vanquished him earlier.'

He did give himself whiplash when he met Sesshoumaru's cool amber eyes. 'Wait a minute. You knew?'

'You know?' Robin and BB said at the same time.

'Where did you meet Trigon?' Raven said again.

'Hn. Of course I did.' The youkai sniffed at the air once more.

'Sesshoumaru,' Raven said with an edge to her voice, outlined in crackling black.

'Japan,' the youkai tossed over his shoulder at her. 'Once, about two months before I came here. In a dream. He tried to take my body. I survived,' he added simply. The crackling faded from Raven's body, but her eyes were still white. She said a few words, the cadence and sound unfamiliar, and at the end a flare of her black aura shot out from her hands and surrounded Sesshoumaru, whose back was still turned. He tensed imperceptibly, and Inuyasha clearly saw his hand twitch automatically to his sword, but then he relaxed and simply waited until the magic unwound itself and stopped flowing between him and the empath.

'What was that?' Sesshoumaru said. He could have been enquiring after the weekend's movie schedule for all the emotion in his voice.

'A spell. Designed to detect Trigon's mind-control techniques.' Very nice movie on Saturday night, will you bring the popcorn?

'You're his daughter and you have the audacity to check me for his influence?' Caramel?

'You think I don't cast it on myself every day?' she retorted. No, butter.

Silenced, Inuyasha noted. He was still getting over the shock of Sesshoumaru's reaction to the unexpected spell. Why hadn't he reacted? It wasn't as if he had any sensitivity to spells or that kind of magic, the non-purifying kind, so he could tell if Raven meant no harm. Youkai rarely had that ability.

Sesshoumaru being nice. Sesshoumaru providing explanations on request (okay, threat, but still). This was becoming very weird.

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'The symbols are the ones that appeared on my body,' Raven reported to the others. She had locked herself and Starfire in with the catatonic Jinx for a while and when she emerged, she looked grim. 'The same. Only there's something else, too. There's a strange sort of mark on her back. It looks…..like a spider, actually. And I don't recognise it.'

'It looks like this, you mean?' Miroku said, his shielded hand flying across a paper. When he finished, he held the drawing up for everyone to see.

'Yeah, that's it,' she said. 'How did you know?'

'Naraku's mark,' Miroku said simply. He was completely calm, in direct contrast to the other Inu gang, who were visibly distressed.

'But how did she……'

'Don't you get it?' Miroku sounded weary, as if he had always known, as if he had never hoped. 'It's Naraku. Trigon took Naraku's body over. Then, once the takeover was complete, I guess Trigon took Naraku's body to his own dimension. That's why he died, that's why the wind tunnel vanished. And now they're back here, in this time, and the wind tunnel's reappeared.'

'So why does that girl have Naraku's symbol then? She another of his spawn?' Inuyasha was perilously close to taking a swing at the comatose hexer.

'Well, since Trigon is inside Naraku now, she would take on some of his attributes. Including the mark, it seems.'

'Huh. I get it now,' Robin sounded annoyed with himself, as he always did when he wasn't the first to get the answer. 'Jinx isn't a portal like Raven was. It's more like…she holds Trigon's DNA in her, so that he can reconstruct himself from her.'

'So she won't survive his entry here, is what you're saying,' Cyborg said. The metalman was paler than normal, and Robin felt a little ashamed of himself. Cy's……thing……for Jinx was common knowledge, and he was talking about her death as if she were a piece of furniture. 'No, Cy, she won't. Not like Raven did.'

'So we kick his butt before he even tries.' Cyborg steeled himself – no pun intended – and the infamous determined grin spread across his features. 'We did it once before, right? We'll do it again.'

'I agree,' Robin said quickly. 'But first we have to know what we're up against.'

'I'll leave you to that,' Raven said in her dry voice. 'I've got some spells to look up. Somebody keep an eye on her.' She drifted to the door, only to stop at Kagome's voice.

'Wait. There's one other thing.' Everyone glanced at the miko, who had remained quiet until now. 'Just before the wind tunnel opened……. I dreamt someone was telling me to wake up. It sounded like Naraku.'

'Naraku? You mean Trigon, then.' Raven's fist clenched, and she cast the spell again. Again, there was no reaction. 'That's strange. There's no trace of him.'

'I know. I think it was Naraku – the real Naraku.'

'Why would he want to contact you?' Inuyasha looked disgusted. 'Who knows what that sick freak's got in mind.'

Kagome looked like she wanted to say something, but decided not to.

'Miroku.' Raven's voice floated through the open door. 'I may need an extra pair of eyes with the spellbooks.'

Miroku joined her, though he looked a little puzzled at being called so specifically.

Feeling rather aimless now that Raven was gone, the rest looked around the room.

'So. What do we do now?' Cyborg said tentatively.

'First: we need to know everything about Naraku. Second: they need to know everything about Trigon. Something might come from that. After that, we'll see what we know and take it from there.' As always, Robin was already making plans. Plans, consequences, strategy…..he understood them, they were methodical and orderly and that was territory he knew. Demons and half-demons and spells were profoundly disorderly, and the sooner he could quantify them the better.

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'Not that I'm displeased by your singling me out, Raven,' Miroku said, 'but why me? Unless,' and that lecherous flirty grin spread on his face, 'you have finally succumbed to my manly charms and– '

'In case you haven't noticed, this is me being unimpressed.'

He looked hurt as Raven cut him off. She didn't even bother to look at him as she floated books of all shapes and sizes to the table where they were standing. They were in a room full of books, both Robin's criminal files and Raven's excess reading material. He reached his hand around her, but she turned in his half-embrace and fixed her large lavender eyes rather knowingly on him. The electric light fritzed madly across the hall. Reluctantly, Miroku withdrew his hand. It wasn't so much a real need to feel her as much as sheer curiosity at being denied. The forbidden fruit and all that. But he did want to survive the next three minutes…..

'I'm glad you've grown a brain. And why exactly are you fooling with me when it's obvious you've a thing for Starfire?'

Miroku sighed. Did everyone know? 'How did you find out?'

'Please. The way you stare at her? I'd have to be blind.'

'She does have pretty eyes………'

'Funny. I'd swear it wasn't her eyes you were looking at. And in answer to your question, I called you because…..' Raven looked up at him. He was struck again by how short she actually was. She seemed taller most of the time, or was it just the floating? 'You mean you don't know?'

'Know what?'

Raven huffed, flipping through a tome half her height while sliding another across the table to him. 'Your magic, you idiot.'

He let the "idiot" pass and focused on the rest. 'Magic?'

'Yes, magic. You have some In form, rather like Jinx's, actually. Attack-based, and moderately powerful. So you didn't know after all.'

'You mean my spiritual powers? I always thought they were mine because I'm a houshi.'

'With your lifestyle? Dream on. Girls, booze, lying, cheating…….yep, you're a regular saint and all. I can just see why you'd have holy powers.'

Did everyone know?– floated through his mind again. Sango and Kagome really did take sadistic pleasure in telling everyone about his, ahem, exploits. He mulled over that in silence while he read the book. It was a journal of some sort, and the style was……. eccentric, at best, and raving mad the rest of the time. 'What am I looking for?'

'Barriers, mind control, banishing, dealing with incorporeal beings. Mark the passages and we'll go through them later.'

A small glow lit up his face at that. Finally something he could deal with.

'How upset are you about the wind tunnel?' she said emotionlessly.

'A fair bit,' Miroku said, matching her blank expression. 'I'm trying quite hard not to think about it. I'm actually happy it opened now and not later, when…..'

'When you were reconciled to its absence? I know the feeling.'

A raised eyebrow.

'Trigon said he would fulfil the prophecy on my birthday. He waited until the last few minutes to declare himself, the twisted…….' Raven trailed off.

'Ah. I see.' And he did. This Trigon was not unlike Naraku, it seemed. They continued working in silence. Miroku found that most of the books contained a translation incantation somewhere, making them easy to read. Some were even in Japanese. The spells in them ranged from light magic to dark, trivial to important, and he couldn't help thinking that if Raven knew even half of these, it was a wise decision not to cross her.

'And what about you?' he said a while later.

'Mwha?' she said, nose buried in a musty old book.

'Your…..romantic interest.'

All the lamps in the room switched off and on again erratically. Miroku smirked. 'Ah, I seem to have hit a nerve. So you've noticed the dog staring at you?'

'Inuyasha doesn't stare at me. For one thing, he's too wrapped up in Kagome and even if he did stare, she'd sit him to the centre of the earth, and he's quite aware of it.'

'I wasn't talking about him, and you know it.'

Raven sighed. This was a conversation she really didn't want to have. The entire world, it seemed, relished speculating on her love life – even if she had none. The tabloids divided themselves rather evenly between Robin and Beast Boy, and now the houshi was putting Sesshoumaru in the race as well. The whole thing was simply ridiculous. Robin was like a brother to her, and she wouldn't have dreamed of making a move on him even after his crush on Starfire faded. She sometimes doubted if it ever had. And Beast Boy was a good friend – hell, her best friend – but the mere thought of going out on his idea of a date (which would probably entail an arcade, an amusement park or a similar crowded and relentlessly, demonically cheerful place, and tofu at the end) was enough to make her gag.

'Sesshoumaru stares at everyone. If you ask me, he needs spectacles. Do you realise he can probably hear us at this distance?'

'I'm not bothered. Are you?' Well, he has a hide like a battleship.

'I don't see why we're discussing this,' Raven said as she flipped another page as if she'd much rather be flipping something else. It was an unsubtle dismissal and Miroku didn't push it.

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'Hn,' Sesshoumaru said unexpectedly in the living room a couple of floors away.

Robin looked up at the youkai, who'd been stoically silent until a moment ago. 'Er, did you say something?'

'No,' the youkai said, staring expressionlessly beyond them. 'No, I said nothing at all.'

He turned and left the room.

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It was about an hour away from dawn when Raven closed the book she was reading with a loud snap. The houshi, who had dozed off on his book after a sleepless night and six hours of reading, woke with a start. Miroku rubbed his sleep-fogged eyes and stared blearily at the Azarathian beside him, who looked fresh as a daisy; he ran a tired hand through his messy hair and thought uncharitable thoughts.

'Found something, I presume?'

'In spades.' Before he could wonder what spades had to do with it, she elaborated. 'I know how he did it now.'

First Interlude: Takeover.

Struggle. Thrust and repulsion. Attack and defense. That defined his existence now. His body was out of his control, most of the time, and his mind was flung wide open for Trigon to ruffle through at his leisure, as if it were a scroll left abandoned in the mud. All he could do was snatch the occasional thought or feeling (not that he'd allowed himself too many of those before) from the chaos that trapped him; make some desperate effort to regain control and be repulsed, be shattered. And then the presence again, clawing at him like the claws of the white-haired inu-hanyou he saw in his memory-fragments; defense then, holding on to the edge out of sheer stubbornness until his captor tired of the game and left him alone in his prison again. What facts he caught, he held closely to himself, and he ran through them again and again until they made some sort of twisted sense. Whether they were real or not, he didn't know and didn't care.

Naraku. That was his name, he was quite sure of that, he remembered her calling him that – but she called him something else too, and that was lost. Hanyou. Bandit. Kikyou. Kikyou. Kagura, wind elemental. He'd freed her just before Trigon – there was another name – took him. He would have killed her – was going to kill her – but then he realised that the presence wanted him to do it, whispered the suggestion as it ate away at his mind, absorbing him one youkai at a time. He freed her, seething with rage that he was being controlled, and told her to run. Kanna, dead, her mirror shattered.

Who was he again? Naraku. Naraku. He said the name over and over, until it burned into him. The him that was left. Puppet-master turned puppet. Absorber absorbed. If his sense of humour was working right now, it would have made him laugh a long long time.

She had disliked that laugh, and she had provoked it often. Kikyou. That name was the first thing Naraku had retained; he had fought for it so fiercely and insanely that even Trigon had given up. An odd kind of respect had touched the other demon then, and he had made no attempt to take that thought away from him. And Naraku hated himself for accepting that charity, and hated Trigon more for making him accept it.

Something else brushed past him occasionally, another trapped soul. He knew it was a woman, and he didn't question the knowledge. She was young, and in severe pain, she was fighting as hard as he was and losing just as inevitably, and that was all he knew.

Hate, rage, memory. Traces of pain and sorrow.

The Shikon no Tama. The jewel. That was linked to Kikyou, of course, and so it was Naraku's reason for living. Kikyou and the Shikon jewel. Hate and desire.

The miko from the well. Kikyou's reincarnation. The holder of the last few shards of the Shikon jewel. The power of the jewel was with Trigon now, but the knowledge of how to use it was Naraku's. He waited. As a thief, he had learned stealth; as Naraku, he had learned patience. They served him well now.

The opportunity he was expecting came rather suddenly. The demon possessing him – not a youkai, some other strange spirit as unnatural as he himself was – his attention wandered as he cast a spell that opened a portal. In that space of time, Naraku acted. A brief flare of power, and suddenly he was in the reincarnation's mind, Kagome was it? He tried to tell her something, anything (was he even sure what he wanted to say? Naraku doubted it) but all he could do was make her wake up from her dream as he tried to make her acknowledge his presence.

He had made surprising allies before. Of course, he had discarded them immediately once their work was done, but that was immaterial after all. Nobody thrived without daring, and he was extremely daring. He was no fool either. He was dead, or as good as. Even if the demon left his body, he would kill Naraku in the process. And Trigon had more than enough power to crush him like a bug if he tried anything open. The game was played out, and he had lost. But he still possessed a few crucial bits of information.

And damn if he wasn't going to take Trigon with him.

A/N: okay, that's four more chapters up. I have another six chapters, plus an epilogue to go. Thanks to my reviewers (two in two days)!