"What the hell is that?" Clint yelled out looking at Jaken who turned to scowl at him.
Kagome rolled her eyes, "That would be Jaken." She said simply.
Natasha nodded with a smirk, "Ah, the annoying one." Kagome nodded in return.
Steve however was glaring at Jaken, a frown on his face, "That is no way to talk to a lady."
Kagome laughed lightly at Steve's attempt to defend her, "It's fine."
Before she could say anything else Tony interrupted her with a frown of his own, "No. It's really not. You shouldn't be alright with being treated like that."
Kagome laughed again, "No you don't understand. That is Jaken being nice." Any nicer and he would be worshipping her like he did to Sesshomaru. The moment she married Sesshomaru she became his lady. He started treating Shippo and herself much nicer than her previously had. He still treated everyone else like crap, which had annoyed Inuyasha to no end. A frown came over her face as she turned her now icy gaze onto the small Kappa demon.
"Jaken." She used the tone of voice that she usually used right before sitting Inuyasha. Jaken seemed to pale slightly, looking at her with wide eyes. Internally she grinned, it looked like even after 500 years Jaken was still wary of her temper. Externally, however, she was channeling her inner Sesshomaru.
"Ye-yes Miko?" Jaken stuttered at her. it looked like Jaken wanted to be anywhere else.
"Did I, or did I not trust you to watch over my children in my absence." She asked coldly.
"You did Miss." Jaken said, showing an odd form of respect for her. Right now, it wasn't Kagome lecturing Jaken. No, right now, it was the lady of the west questioning her retainer.
"So please explain to me why one of them is contained inside a barrier with my mate, and the other one is MISSING!" she was calm through all of it but screamed the last word. It hurt her throat, but at the moment she could really care less.
Jaken bowed his head in apology, "I am very sorry. I couldn't do anything with Shippo or Rin. I have failed you and Mi Lord."
Kagome sighed, her anger deflating. She had never seen Jaken genuinely apologize before. Sure she had seem him flail for apologies to Sesshomaru before, but he had never really meant it before. She sat back down, having stood in her anger, "What happened Shippo, Jaken? What happened to my baby?"
Jaken spoke a single word and it felt like Kagome's very soul froze, "Naraku."
"What?" Kagome whispered in horror. Tasha sat down next to her, pulling her into a side hug. Kirara made her way to Kagome's shoulder and started purring, trying to help calm her down.
"I only told Lord Sesshomaru and Lady Inukimi before. Nobody else needed to know and they could mind their own business." Jaken grumbled out, "Very shortly after you all rushed to Edo to find the cause of the fire, we were ambushed by Naraku. Ah-Un tried to fly off with the kids but was shot down by Naraku. Rin got knocked out in the fall. Shippo tried to protect her."
Kagome nodded, a tiny smile on her face, "He was always a brave boy and protected the ones he cared about." He had started thinking of Rin of a sister once Sesshomaru and herself started courting. He had lost a lot in his young life and he was very protective of the ones he had left. It was why she had ended up leaving him behind with Rin towards the end. He almost always got hurt every time he tagged along with the fighting group.
"Brave is one way to explain him, foolish is another." Jaken scoffed before continuing, "I tried fending Naraku off, but all I had was my staff. I'm surprised that Naraku didn't just kill us all. I was knocked out, when I workup it was just Ah-Un, Rin, and myself. Neither Naraku nor Shippo was around. I stayed to protect Rin until Sesshomaru came back. When he did I had never seen Mi Lord so angry and cold before. He was literally blocking his emotions off, trying to stay in control of his beast. He told me about your group's death. Then he told me how he tried to protect you only to most likely send you off to your death. He had no idea that Naraku could follow you through the well. Before then only the mutt could follow you through.
"When Mi Lord finally lost the battle to his beast I wasn't around either. I was in Lady Inukimi's library trying to find something to help Mi Lord per his orders. Sesshomaru hadn't been letting Rin out of his sight since the battle of Edo. She was the only thing he had left to teether himself to. Hakudoshi practically became Mi Lord's shadow once he had forced him to submit. I think I remember him saying that only Mi Lord was worth his time, or something like that. I heard Mi Lord's rampage, but there was nothing I could do. Hours passed before everything fell silent. That night Inukimi told me what she had been forced to do. It had either been that or killing him. Lady Inukimi couldn't make herself harm her son so she sealed him away. She then gave me a job for the future. She was always sure about your survival. Always saying that you weren't dead and the heir still lived as well. The job she gave me was to gain as much knowledge I could that would he helpful to you over 500 years. Then when it came to your time once again I was to go with you and aid you in your journey." Jaken folded his arms with a huff, "I only agreed as it would help Mi Lord." He said not looking at her.
Kagome smiled at him. He truly did care about her. his pride simply didn't allow him to actively show it. "Thank you Jaken."
Jaken nodded slowly, looking up to human his Lord had fallen so hard for. They hadn't known exactly when she could come out of the well, and it was very easy to lose track of time over 500 years. Jaken had actually watched Kagome grow up some. He came from Inukimi's cast to live here in Aokigahara when Kagome was six-years-old. He had been at the shrine the day Kagome was pulled down the well. It had been an odd feeling when the well activated. Unfortunately, he had not been there the day she came through for the last time, Naraku following. He had gone the next day to find the shrine destroyed and humans had been talking about how Kagome had been put in a hospital. After that he knew it was just a waiting game for Kagome to come and talk to Bokuseno. He was secretly very happy that his Lord's mate seemed to be fine for the most part.
Kagome sighed tiredly. Why couldn't everyone just be safe and next to her. her mind drifted towards one of the nights they had stayed at Sesshomaru's castle. She had been trying to get the kids to go to sleep. Shippo had been sitting on her lap, wiggling in excitement for her to read to him. Rin was sitting so close to her side she was practically attached. Rin had grown up as an orphan in feudal Japan. Needless to say, she had never had a bedtime story before. Sesshomaru was sitting right behind her, she had been leaning on him slightly. He was simply content to be around his little family. She had ended up having to read three short stores before the kids had fallen asleep. She had carried Shippo while Sesshomaru carried Rin. They put them both into the bed in Rin's room. Sesshomaru had offered to give Shippo his own room, but they had both wanted to share a room. That night had been the most content that she had felt in a long time.
Now; not only did Naraku have her little brother under his control, he also held her kit captive. Her mate was prisoned in a barrier with her daughter. Both of her families were now dead… of how she wished she could go back a month and warn herself. No, she needed to move toward the future. First step was to find Koga. He might know where Inukimi's flying castle was. Once she found Inukimi she could tell where she had hidden away her mate. Then she would free Sota from Naraku's grasp and save her kit. She wouldn't be alone either, both Natasha and Clint would help her. She knew that, they had made that very clear. Maybe they could get Shield to help her look for Koga.
"Are you alright Kagome?" she looked up to see Bruce looking at her in concern.
"I'm as fine as I can be considering everything. I guess I just realized how much I have to do to get my family back to me." She answered him, a pained smile coming through.
"You'll have all the help you need." Tony said, looking very serious. From what she had heard about him it seemed a bit weird, "Seriously if you need anything, and I mean anything simply let myself or Jarvis know."
She gave him a grateful smile, "Thank you Tony. I really do appreciate it." She looked at the billionaire, she hoped that after a while he could tell her the full truth of why he came to help her so quickly. She knew that he wasn't lying. But he wasn't telling her the whole truth either. She could tell he was really good at telling half-truths, she herself had gotten pretty good at telling them herself the past four years. She could usually tell when someone was telling her half-truths. She simply hoped he would eventually tell her.
Suddenly Kagome realized how long they had been in the forest. It had to have been more that two hours. She was sure that Tony had been planning on leaving sooner.
She turned to Jaken a slight grimace on her face, she would have to take him with her. Inukimi obviously wanted her to have Jaken at her side. she only really had two problems with that. The first problem was that she wasn't sure if Tony would like Jaken in his tower. Jaken really wasn't the nicest demon personality wise, especially to humans. The second reason was that Jaken was really only tolerable in short bursts. In the long term he could become extremely annoying. Especially with Sesshomaru not around to reign him in.
She turned to Tony, a wary look in her eyes, "It's alright that Jaken and Kirara come with us, right?"
Tony turned to look at the small green thing. It was glaring at him, daring him to say no. he turned back to his daughter who was still being hugged by Romanov. Huh, he thought idly, he didn't know she could be so… motherly. "The toad is house trained, yeah?" he asked glancing at the toad once again. It was an odd and mean little thing.
Kagome burst out laughing, the first true laugh any of them had heard from her. Jaken bristled at the statement, "I am a Kappa demon, not a toad." He growled out Jaken didn't seem to register the other part of Tony's statement.
Finally, Kagome control of her amusement and managed to nod at Tony, "Yeah, he's good."
Tony then shrugged, "Then yup they are fine to come along then." He took out his phones and added anther memo to Jarvis' to do list. As soon as his phone got reception Jarvis would have a lot to keep him busy. Right now, Kagome wanted to share a floor with Romanov and Barton which was totally fine and understandable. However, when she got better mentally and physically she would probably want her own floor. Especially once she got some of her family back. He realized that his daughter had a large family, especially for being so young. She was only nineteen, almost twenty now, but still only nineteen. He did a mental headcount. There was her husband, two children and one on it's way, two cats, a toad, her younger brother, and herself of course. There was also that other boy that was trapped in the barrier, he would most likely come as well. He didn't know how long it would be before she would want her own floor, but he might as well start getting it ready now. So, he had to plan the floor for six people, a toad, and two cats. Shouldn't be too hard. He would need to furnish everything, sticking close to her Japanese upbringing. Three of the people wouldn't know anything about the past 500 years, he didn't know how much the fox kid would know either. He was here but he was probably very isolated. He also knew that Kagome herself liked to read, that was one thing Kun-Loon had told her about. He would turn of the larger rooms into a library. He would stock it with history books about the past 500 years. Both Japan and the U.S. as that is where they would be living for now. Then there would be the two cats; he would need to stock the common floor, Romanov's floor, and Kagome's future floor with cat supplies. Litter boxes, food, cat toys, stuff for them to climb on, and things for them to claw up so they didn't need to claw his own stuff.
Then he needed to think that a baby was on it's way. In six months a baby would be in his tower. He was going to have to baby proof absolutely EVERYTHING! The tower was definitely not baby proof. Baby things were going to need to be ordered as well.
The final thing for the immediate moment was he needed to see if Kagome had a picture of this Koga guy. If she did he could get Jarvis working with Shield to run a facial search. Working on only a name would only get him so far. Especially if the man knew how to stay hidden. He had been around for more than 500 years apparently.
Kagome's voice broke him out of his thoughts, "Thank you Tony." She turned to Jaken, "So is there anything you need to grab before we leave?"
Jaken nodded quickly and turned to Bokuseno, "Could I have the staff back?"
Bokuseno nodded and suddenly the two-headed staff Jaken usually had on him at all times started coming out of Bokuseno. Bokuseno gave Kagome a knowing look, "Watch him Shikon Miko, he is slightly trigger happy with that staff of his. Had to take it away as he almost burned down the forest."
Kagome rolled her eyes and looked at the Kappa, "No setting things on fire Jaken. That is rule number one."
"Rules?" Jaken asked incredulously.
Kagome nodded seriously, "Yes I will tell you them as I think of them. Like I said, no setting things on fire."
Jaken almost seemed to pout but nodded in agreement as he grabbed the staff and held it close, like he was scared she would take it away.
Kagome turned to look at Bokuseno one last time, "It was good to see you. I will be back to visit later on."
Bokuseno nodded with a smile, "I hope to see your young one next you visit."
They took about a month to gather themselves together. Kirara stayed firmly on Kagome's shoulder. It seemed like the cat was not leaving her perch anytime soon. Jaken was taking the lead as he knew the best way out. Clint was supporting Kagome so she could take some pressure off her ankle. It took about a half hour of walking but they finally made it back to the car.
Buyo looked up at them lazily as they entered. As Kagome sat down he made himself comfortable on her lap. A smile snuck on her face as she started patting him. She watched in amusement as Kirara playfully batted the other cat with her twin tails. Buyo in turn pawed lazily at her. she was happy that they go along. Buyo wasn't one to get along with other cats usually and Kirara wasn't a normal cat. She may look like a cat, but she was still a demon.
Tony told the driver to head towards the airport. They had been driving for almost twenty minutes when a thought came to mind. They had been talking aimlessly, just chatter to fill the silence.
"Hey Jaken? Where is Ah-Un?" she wasn't sure if the dragon was even still alive. Most demons could hide pretty well, but a giant dragon? She highly doubted that he was living within the trees of Aokigahara.
He stayed up with Inukimi in her castle when I came to Aokigahara." Jaken explained from the floor. There hadn't been anymore seats available in the car. They were lucky to have snuck into the car without the driver noticing. She was glad Tony had a private jet so they wouldn't' have to sneak Jaken to America somehow. Though it would have been amusing to try and sneak him in a cat carrier.
Kagome nodded to show he's heard him. Him staying with Inukimi was a good idea, he wouldn't have to hide and would have place to fly around. She was suddenly really tired. She leaned on Clint and he shifted slightly so she could get more comfortable, "Go ahead and rest Gome."
"Wake me up when we get to the airport?" she said sleepily.
Clint chuckled, "We'll see kid. Sleep, gods know you need your rest."
"M'kay." She said before succumbing to the tiredness that had suddenly came over her. it had been happening for about a month and a half now. A few days a week she would just get randomly tired in the middle of the day. When she was still with her group she would either lay on Ah-Un or Sesshomaru would carry her.
She just hoped that they got to America quickly. She wanted her family back and America was her first step.